First go at IR Photography

Hamish Gill

Hamish Gill

Tech Support (and Marketing)
The human eye can see up to about 700mn, beyond that frequency is infra red.
Cameras sensors can see well up into the infra red part of the spectrum.
Because of this they have a filter that cuts this part of the spectrum. If that filter is removed and replaced with a filter that cuts the visible light part of the spectrum and only allows the infra red part some interesting results can be achieved.
At least thats how i understand it :)

More reading here - http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/infrared dslr.shtml
More reading and IR conversions available here - http://www.lifepixel.com/

I have just bought a camera that has had the filter changed.
Unfortunately the camera is faulty ... but...
Although the fault seems to be a fairly major issue with the shutter that gives a "err" message, im not sure its as bigger problem as it might seem ...
I used to get the same issue with my d70s when i cleaned the sensor and was still wet, so i am wondering if an investigation into weather or not the IR filter has maybe moved and is effecting the shutters movement some how...

It also works intermittently, which is good enough for me for now...
This camera cost me £51 which is an absolute bargain by all accounts!

The chap who i bought the camera off wasn't sure at what frequency the filter cuts at, but looking at the images my guess is 720nm

Here is my first attempt at an infra red photo - this would i think be called "false colour infra red photography"

This is the out of the camera IR image
16mm
200iso
f8
400th

DSC_6958-2-1.jpg


pretty bland really...

Here is the same image tweaked a little

DSC_6958.jpg


much more interesting

Here is a black and white conversion

DSC_6958-3.jpg


And here is a version with the blue and red channels inverted - this obviously returns the sky to blue

DSC_69582.jpg


I haven't be any means got to grip with the post process techniques... but its a start, and for £51, I'm over the moon!
 
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Interesting Hamish. I keep meaning to stick a dark red filter on the M8 and see what that does (it does not have a proper IR filter in front of the sensor). IR can also be very effective on skin tones. How are you focusing?
 
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Because the filter is on the sensor and not on the front of the lens auto focus works exactly as it should!
Im not sure about the M8, i know in the very early days there was an issue with red cast dues to the lack of filter, i thought that this was dealt with through firmware? If that is the case, how effective an ir camera is the m8?
 
The cast / sensitivity issue was 'solved' by using IR cut-off filters on the lenses (they supplied 2 FOC). There is a filter in front of the sensor (but no-antialiasing is done) but it still allows enough IR through to show synthetic black fibres as a deep purple etc and it results in a red / IR sensitivity a bit like Ilford SFX by all accounts. I'll get a filter and see what it does.

It might be worth looking at the focusing issues in more detail as IR is focused at a different point to visible light. So although the AF will be working the focus plane will be a bit off. Older lenses have an IR red adjustment spot on them for this purpose (you focus normally, attach a visible light block filter and then shift the focus distance to match the red spot). When stopped down this might not be obvious at moderate distances but closer and at full aperture it probably will. Maybe you can dial in a back focus adjustment to compensate.



http://diglloyd.com/articles/Infrared/LeicaM8_infrared.html
 
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Fab first attempts with the IR I am liking the out of the camera and the tweaked version and also them blue ones, nice work
 
Pete Askew said:
The cast / sensitivity issue was 'solved' by using IR cut-off filters on the lenses (they supplied 2 FOC). There is a filter in front of the sensor (but no-antialiasing is done) but it still allows enough IR through to show synthetic black fibres as a deep purple etc and it results in a red / IR sensitivity a bit like Ilford SFX by all accounts. I'll get a filter and see what it does.

It might be worth looking at the focusing issues in more detail as IR is focused at a different point to visible light. So although the AF will be working the focus plane will be a bit off. Older lenses have an IR red adjustment spot on them for this purpose (you focus normally, attach a visible light block filter and then shift the focus distance to match the red spot). When stopped down this might not be obvious at moderate distances but closer and at full aperture it probably will. Maybe you can dial in a back focus adjustment to compensate.



http://diglloyd.com/articles/Infrared/LeicaM8_infrared.html
Click to expand...

Ah yeah, im with you ...
Ill deal with it when it comes to it on the focusing ... todays experiments seem to say its not so much of an issue
Dialing in some back focus is an idea i wouldn't have thought of though so ill bare that in mind if i feel i want some precision ... could take some experimenting id guess?!
 
Cheers Laurie :)

To be honest Paul, after a day of using it, its now working maybe 90% of the time ... The chap had said he hadnt used it for a few years, got it out and it had the problem.
Its definitely a shutter issue, and im thinking it may have just ceased and is now freeing up a bit...
The batteries are also all third party ones and i have heard of issues like this being caused by dodgy bats ...
 
My experience of batteries is often that the cheap replacement ones use inferior cells and the good replacement ones use decent cells but are only marginally cheaper than the genuine ones. The raw materials for batteries saw massive cost increases a while back and some companies just cut quality to stabilise the price. The better brands increased prices and kept the quality the same.
 
I agree and have only had bad experience with cheap replacement batteries; premature failure and shortened service after charging.

Regards focus, at 2-3m the shift can be over a metre. Not so obvious when stopped down but it will mean that the critical focus zone will have shifted. Try some shots wide open at short and moderate distances and see what happens.
 
I've put an EL3e and it err's 1 time in 50 now
I think it was just ceased and is now freeing up with use ...To be honest, I'm starting to feel a little guilty! I have just bought what seems to be a fully working IR camera for £51 ... He also sent me the original filter so I could convert it back ...
 
Fascinating stuff Hamish - always like IR shots for that otherworldly look, especially in B&W.

You definitely got a bargain :)

The AF issue is going to take some thought - could you manually focus in Live View mode to ensure it's sharp?
 
Ahhhh, don't know my Nikons - sorry

Don't some lenses have IR focus/DOF markings on them?
 
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