Tips for Infra-red photos please..

[ollymel]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, so first of all hello to all, ive already seen some great pics in this forum, love the 120 efforts especially.

My question is regarding ir photos - I've only shot one film of this type before (Ilford SFX, apparently not the ir film of choice but readily available to me) and used a standard red filter, with some nice results. However, I recently bought a suntec IR filter off ebay - very cheap at about £15. However, i didn't realise it was 100% visible light opaque...you can guess what the question is...

if anyone has any tips about shooting this - i.e. metering and focusing - would you suggest first focusing and metering without the filter then just putting it on and shooting? I will be using a tripod...

if anyone has any experience with this id love to hear some tips. I can't wait to get out there and take some snaps, should be great fun....ive heard stuff about changing exposure level slightly with the filter and changing focal length etc but im still unsure.

any input much appreciated, ill be sure to put a result up here soon.

 

[Knikki]

I used to shoot konica 750 film, bit like SFX but more red sensitive, and I use a opaque filter as well.
What I used to do is focus first then stick the filter on and shoot.

As for metering, I didn't I followed the instructions on the inside of the film packet, something like f5.6 @ 1/60 on a bright sunny day.
It worked fairley well from what I remember

Think if you hunt round the web you may find guides like that for SFX or even check out the Ilford website itself. Have fun

 

[CT]

...ive heard stuff about changing exposure level slightly with the filter and changing focal length etc but im still unsure.

Well if you're using TTL metering I wouldn't think you'd need to make any exposure adjustment. With regard to changing focal length, I think you mean re-focusing which you do have to do because infra red light is at a different wave length to normal light.

This is an image of the Canon 50mm 1.4 focusing index mark. The red dot next to the white index mark is the amount by which you need to correct the point of focus when using IR film.

In practice you'd focus in the normal manner using the white index mark, then make a note of what point on the distance scale aligns with that mark. Let's say it's 30 feet. You then just move the 30 foot mark so that it aligns with the red dot which will correct your focusing for IR light. As you can see, it's only a very slight adjustment

At one time you could guarantee that all lenses would carry this IR focusing mark, either as a red dot or line, but sadly it's something that tends to get omitted these days since the advent of AF lenses, although some lenses seem to have it now while some don't.

 

[ollymel]

Thanks guys - I had a bad result from the first film as nothing came out. The answer? - the filter cuts off all below 750, and the film goes up to about 750....the result = nothing!

Live and learn...trying to buy some Kodak HIE but its 18 pounds a reel...hmmm..