Beginner Infra-red

Adrian Vaughan

Adrian Vaughan

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Adrian
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Hi all ,

I have a D3300 and 18-55mm lens, i bought a *cheap* infra-red filter for £6 , now the question is are all Ir 720 filters the same ? And to take infra-red does it have to be clear and bright ? or can I do it with cloud cover ? i would post link to my shots and the filter i bought but can until 3 posts :/

Thanks.
 
Adrian Vaughan said:
Hi all ,

I have a D3300 and 18-55mm lens, i bought a *cheap* infra-red filter for £6 , now the question is are all Ir 720 filters the same ? And to take infra-red does it have to be clear and bright ? or can I do it with cloud cover ? i would post link to my shots and the filter i bought but can until 3 posts :/

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You can take infrared with cloud cover, but without bright light the foliage will be grey instead of white. I like using it with strong sunlight with a bit of cloud, also in wooded areas. You can do all sorts with a screw on type as it also works like a neutral density filter - you can use it for long exposure or in camera movement etc, it's a great creative tool. Don't be afraid of using wide apertures such as f2.8 - f5.6 or high ISOs either. The best way of learning is just to try it and see what works. Would be interested in seeing how decent the £6 version is, I paid £150 for my Hoya R72 82mm
 
The £6 filter was nasty it failed , looked like just a plain red filter. So i bought the hoya R72 52mm for £25. I not had a day with direct sunlight yet. Weather round Manchester is pants on my days off from work lol. This is what I have so far. Plus you can see just above this post how bad that other filter was.
OK then, let's see YOUR infrared images please.
 
Adrian Vaughan said:
The £6 filter was nasty it failed , looked like just a plain red filter. So i bought the hoya R72 52mm for £25. I not had a day with direct sunlight yet. Weather round Manchester is pants on my days off from work lol. This is what I have so far. Plus you can see just above this post how bad that other filter was.
OK then, let's see YOUR infrared images please.
Click to expand...

They'll all look red straight out of camera - you need to convert them first. See this David Clapp tutorial:

http://www.davidclapp.co.uk/blog/view/photographing-and-processing-infrared-images
 
Do these IR filters actually work (as most cameras IR filter on the sensor would block the filtered light presumably, hense IR conversions)?
 
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odd jim said:
Do these IR filters actually work (as most cameras IR filter on the sensor would block the filtered light presumably, hense IR conversions)?
Click to expand...

Jim, most camera sensors have some kind of IR block filter, but its often not very strong in the near-IR and often only works well on the longer wavelengths, ie still lets some IR light get to the sensor, so with an external Hoya R72 (720nm) filter on most cameras with a longer than usual exposure you will get an IR image. If you started using 830nm or 940nm, you may find that it does block the image (especially at 940nm)

The big advantage of using a modified camera is that you can shoot handheld with similar exposure times to 'normal' (The disadvantage is that now you have a camera that is effectively only IR sensitive!!! You could have a full spectrum conversion, but then you need a further external filter for UV/normal/IR shooting, etc)
 
Mr Perceptive said:
Jim, most camera sensors have some kind of IR block filter, but its often not very strong in the near-IR and often only works well on the longer wavelengths, ie still lets some IR light get to the sensor, so with an external Hoya R72 (720nm) filter on most cameras with a longer than usual exposure you will get an IR image. If you started using 830nm or 940nm, you may find that it does block the image (especially at 940nm)

The big advantage of using a modified camera is that you can shoot handheld with similar exposure times to 'normal' (The disadvantage is that now you have a camera that is effectively only IR sensitive!!! You could have a full spectrum conversion, but then you need a further external filter for UV/normal/IR shooting, etc)
Click to expand...
Nicely explained, cheers [emoji106]
 
I recently bought a Hoya r72 filter. I used this tutorial by David Clapp to first convert them before going to black and white in Lightroom and silverfx. It seems David has updated his advice on converting the red straight out of camera images. I followed this process and they came out ok. I quite like the black and white images that are possible so all my images so far are B&W, I may try false colour in the future. These were taken in overcast conditions with breaks in the clouds that created the dappled light on the hills.

http://www.davidclapp.co.uk/blog/vi...lance-to-process-infrared-images-in-lightroom

A couple of my first tries are below:

Yewbarrow and Great Gable- Infrared B&W by -Rob'81-

Lingmell and Wasdale Head Hall Farm- Infrared B&W by -Rob'81-
 
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