Converted my D80 to Infrared :) The results

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zeameth

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Last year i dabbled with infrared photography, mostly with a little point and shoot lumix that i converted. This year i decided i wanted to jump in rather than dip a toe. I picked up a Good condition Nikon D80 (around 21k actuation's) for £55 and converted it to Infrared myself over the weekend
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I don't have any photos of the project unfortunately, i was more concerned with not bricking the camera and cutting the new glass to the right size. I opted to replace the Internal Cut filter (hot mirror) with a Hoya UV filter (cut to size by hand
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) instead of an IR pass filter. This way i can experiment with different Wavelengths and not be locked into one specific. I simply screw a filter onto the front of the lens
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. This does mean however that you see can't through the view finder to compose the shot. The camera will auto focus you just cant see on what.

Mod Completed and tested with few test shots i wandered out in Cambridge yesterday evening with an old 18-55 and my tokina 11-16 2.8.

I'm very much still learning the processing side of this type of photography but i thought i would share a few of my first processed shots Oh really big versions on Flickr Here

1) Tokina 11-16 2.8 - 1/200 f11 @ 16mm

This lens has a pretty dreadful hot spot issue for IR. Think i got it in post, can you spot it?



The Cam and Bridge by zeameth, on Flickr

2)Nikon 18-55 1/100 f9 @ 55mm


Kings College Chapel from the backs by zeameth, on Flickr

3)Nikon 18-55 1/40 f11 18mm


Kings College Entrance by zeameth, on Flickr

4) Nikon 18-55 1/100 f8 @ 18mm


Punts at the Mill Cambridge
by zeameth, on Flickr
 
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Very nice ... would love to give IR a go but I have no understanding of what you have done to the D80 though I have done 0 research on the IR setups. :D
 
I can perhaps see a very small hot spot on the images with more contrast, i.e the punts and bridge. On the punts it looks like it is on the far bank, to the right of the tree just before the bright spot, but you have to really look for it and I would not have "spotted" it had you not said anything.
Well done on the self conversation though, looks like its working well. And to say your shooting blind, good compositions and plenty of detail. #1 and 4 are my favorites.
 
jondc said:
I can perhaps see a very small hot spot on the images with more contrast, i.e the punts and bridge. On the punts it looks like it is on the far bank, to the right of the tree just before the bright spot, but you have to really look for it and I would not have "spotted" it had you not said anything.
Well done on the self conversation though, looks like its working well. And to say your shooting blind, good compositions and plenty of detail. #1 and 4 are my favorites.
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thanks for your comments :) There should only be a hotspot in the first image :) As far as i could tell the 18-55 didn't suffer from the problem. Ill post up a pre-processed image for comparison later if you like?
 
Excellent and well done for the DIY conversion (y)

I have an EOS M spare and am considering the conversion.
 
Like the sky and blossom in the first image of the second set. Not so sure about the second one, it seems to lack contrast and drama for me.
 
Really love the IR effect. Is it quite tricky to edit to get to this standard? I've seen people use lightroom and THEN photoshop to get the colours away from the bright reds to the blues,whites and yellows.

EDIT: Really love the king's college entrance pic. Great reflections
 
paleblue said:
Really love the IR effect. Is it quite tricky to edit to get to this standard? I've seen people use lightroom and THEN photoshop to get the colours away from the bright reds to the blues,whites and yellows.

EDIT: Really love the king's college entrance pic. Great reflections
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Hi,l firstly let me say thank you for you nice comments. In so far as editing i am definite amateur. The hardest point for me at the moment is looking at the IR photo and deciding exactly how i want it to turn out. With it being so far from the reality we see it is similar to having a blank canvas.

Generally every photo has its blue and red channels swapped (but not always 100% or sometimes even minus on the green) levels sorted and selective hue/saturation changes. That all happens after fixing the giant hotspot my 11-16 creates.
 
Love the IR effect, I have a D80 and tried with a IR filter once but it didn't really work. Maybe in the future if I upgrade the camera I'll have a go at a conversion as what you have done seems to work well. Must be hard composing not being able to see anything through the viewfinder though.

For my own tastes I prefer the first ones that you posted rather than the yellow/gold approach. Really like 1 and 4 in the first post and you've done a good job of sorting the hotspot, nothing is obvious to me.
 
Excellent.

I dabbled with IR with my old D100 but that was just by using a filter on the lens. Would I be correct in assuming that an on lens filter isn't necessary with your conversion?

And in bright sunlight, what sort of exposure do you need?


Steve.
 
SteveSc said:
Love the IR effect, I have a D80 and tried with a IR filter once but it didn't really work. Maybe in the future if I upgrade the camera I'll have a go at a conversion as what you have done seems to work well. Must be hard composing not being able to see anything through the viewfinder though.

For my own tastes I prefer the first ones that you posted rather than the yellow/gold approach. Really like 1 and 4 in the first post and you've done a good job of sorting the hotspot, nothing is obvious to me.
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Thanks :) at the moment i seem to prefer the results from the 720 filter aswell. Saying that with the 590 you can see the scene through the viewfinder so it can speed things up composition wise. Converting the d80 was actually pretty easy, the hard bit was cutting the glass to size. If i was todo it again i would probably opt to send a filter off for cutting.


Steve Smith said:
Excellent.

I dabbled with IR with my old D100 but that was just by using a filter on the lens. Would I be correct in assuming that an on lens filter isn't necessary with your conversion?

And in bright sunlight, what sort of exposure do you need?
Steve.
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I removed the IR cut filter (hot mirror) from the camera internals and replaced it a piece of UV glass the same thickness. I'm not sure what this technically makes the camera, broad spectrum possibly. Anyway for near infra-red photography i do need a screw in filter on the front of the lens. It gives me the flexibility to experiment with different filters and test results. Exposure times are pretty standard, there is no need for long exposures.

It is great fun but i need to make more time for it.
 
Getting some good results there :)
Need to get out more with mine as well - it sits in the car every day so its not as if I have to dig it out.
My current home conversion was done on a Panasonic G1 - excellent candidate for IR conversions and being mirrorless, you get to see the image in the viewfinder before you take it :)
I've tried converting compacts and a few DSLR's from both Nikon and Canon (Canon is best left to the pro's to convert - Nikon is easier to dismantle) but so far prefer the G1 just for the EVF.
 
The last two have an otherworldly effect, very nice.
 
I'm not a huge fan of IR, but White island and Across the lake look superb to me :)
 
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Where did you get the internal filter from?


Edit: Just re read your post again.

Was the filter easy to cut to size?

What is the difference between an IR-Pass and a UV filter?
 
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