One For The Photographers?

aztecbandit1 · July 5, 2008

Brought an infrared filter the other day (Hoya R72) Do any of you guys/girls use them?

Was just wondering what was the best way to use them? Been having a search and found loads of different types of pictures using the filters but found you need to have quite a bit of light to get the best results? Does using a delayed flash help on close up subjects? And can you use different filters with the R72 to get different efffects?

Something i'm getting into at the moment, so thought i'd ask as i'd never seen them until Sagitar told me about them on here, when he won the photo comp?

Here's a couple of pic's i took last night trying to figure it out and wonderd what you thought?

:D

WylieCoyote · July 5, 2008

I have an infrared converted Canon 20D which only shoots IR pictures. Cost £220 for the conversion. Problem with using the deep red filters is that it necessitates long shutter speeds.

An infrared camera/filter will only work effectively if there's infrared light. The best time for this is at the end of a warm day when buildings and trees are heated up and therefore will appear white.

The secret with any kind of experimental photography is knowing when it works and when it doesn't. Using an IR capable camera when there's precious little IR light around, turns it into a rather nice b/w camera as it will darken blue tones and exaggerate white tones - giving the very classic black sky with white fluffy clouds.

Your photos look about 1.33-1.66 stops underexposed. When shooting IR, it doesn't do any harm to overexpose the shot by about 1.5 stops (remembering one stop is a doubling or halving in time value). Weight the histogram to the mid-right - if it's dead centre it's likely to be slightly underexposed. With a normal image you'd want the histogram pretty much central - but it works better slightly weighted to the right but IR works much better with a more extreme weighting.

If you want to see the last IR shot I took, go to my website (www.keithwylie.co.uk), click on galleries, then panoramics and it's the one on the right.

Hope this is useful and if you want any more help let me know.

Keith

Edit - IR shots are much more prone to flare so be very careful about the position of the sun relative to the lens.

aztecbandit1 · July 5, 2008

Thankyou for the help Keith very good of you mate :D Will have to practice a bit with it as its all new to me but now i have a better idea on what to aim for and will use the histogram more as its something i've never used that much , :D Thanks again for your time mate, :)

lutonmatt · July 5, 2008

i have a i/r lens but never had any luck with it on my old camera but now i have a new one i have not used it as i have only just found my tripod was right at the back of the loft (rewired the house every thing in the loft)

now i can take longer shots but did not know about the time of the day ect so i have learnt something thanks keith

might have a play tomorrow as i am out and about tomorrow with the trans am club

will post if they turn out any good

what camera you got

aztecbandit1 · July 5, 2008

i have a i/r lens but never had any luck with it on my old camera but now i have a new one i have not used it as i have only just found my tripod was right at the back of the loft (rewired the house every thing in the loft)
now i can take longer shots but did not know about the time of the day ect so i have learnt something thanks keith

might have a play tomorrow as i am out and about tomorrow with the trans am club

will post if they turn out any good

what camera you got

i'm just using a Fuji S9600 at the moment but works very well for what i've used it for so far, and the I/R filter just amazed me with the effect it gives, as some of the photos i've taken with it so far are quite eery :D

WylieCoyote · July 6, 2008

An IR camera will work at any time of the day as a really nice b/w camera. However the maximum IR effect is reached when it's warm/hot and buildings, trees, foliage etc all become warm and give off IR radiation. Mine IR converted camera still comes out when I'm on location and it's freezing cold though! I've even used it in the studio before now with some 'redhead' lights and it gives a fabulous effect.

A really nice IR shot that always works is backlit leaves. Wait until the evening, find some leaves with the sun behind them so it's turning them almost translucent, and do an IR shot of that - always works very well. A bit of motion blur (which you're going to get with an IR filter because of the long shutter time) works really nicely too.