Please extend a warm welcome to my friend and fellow photographer, Gary Potts, of Indianapolis, Indiana. Gary and I are members of the Photography Society of America, and are involved with local organizations, including Photo Venture Camera Club, Indianapolis Professional Photographer's Guild, and Riviera Camera Club – all excellent organizations full of talented photographers!
Recently Gary presented to local clubs on one of his passions, Infrared Photography. He did such a great job and shared so many inspiring images that I asked him to write a Guest Blog Post.
Sit back and learn from Gary's experience with IR, and enjoy his spectacular infrared images posted here. – Rad A. Drew
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| ? Gary Potts |
INFRARED Photography within the Digital Age,
by Gary Potts, Grand Master PSA, EFIAP/bronze |
| Gary Potts |
Years ago, lots of us who started out a little in advance than others (Oops, perhaps we?Re just OLDER than others rather than beginning earlier!) used this surreal movie in a yellow box labeled Kodak Hi-Speed Infrared HIE one hundred thirty five-36. We needed to load it in the dark into our cameras, no longer touch the emulsion side extra than vital to get it wound onto the take-up spool of our SLR?S, and sooner or later to increase it by means of unloading it in the darkish or taking it to a lab that knew what they have been doing. We had very little concept of what we?D see and what we?D get till that high-quality monochromatic proof sheet made its manner lower back to us in a day or two. Oh, did I point out we needed to placed a deep red clear out over our lenses at some stage in publicity and every so often disclose for shutter speeds that mandated a tripod?
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| ? Gary Potts |
Those golden days are past us, and prefer such a lot of factors of images, we have a brand new international in the virtual age in regard to photographing within the infrared spectrum. It?S novel, interesting, a completely unique new view of our surroundings, and but one greater device within the kit of folks that need to create interesting pics with impact. A current photo made on a experience to Kauai, Hawaii, ?Kilauea Moment?, typifies how the everyday would possibly just be taken to the fantastic by means of converting the medium from regular daytime to the world of infrared.
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| ? Gary Potts |
Well, pretty simply, it refers to a portion of the mild spectrum we generally can?T see. Light as we know it's far measured by means of wavelengths, and the unit of degree used is the nanometer. Visible mild is measured from four hundred ? 700 nanometers. Light at this ?Length? May be visible with the naked eye. Just above that wavelength within the place of seven hundred ? 900 nm we have infrared light or radiation that is invisible to us. However, do away with the infrared blockading filter out from the sensor surface of a virtual digicam, replace it with an infrared enhancing filter out, and you've a camera this is capable of taking pictures pics inside the infrared spectrum. Enough of the Physics of Light101!
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| ? Gary Potts |
How is this accomplished? While there are several businesses across the world that will ‘convert’ a camera from digital (visible light spectrum) to digital (infrared spectrum), the one seemingly most popular or more, pardon the pun, visible, is a firm called LifePixel Inc. Based in Mukilteo, WA, this business is focused primarily on infrared photography and all its components. Not only can you pack and ship your camera to them for conversion, you can download and view numerous tutorials and helpful Q&A pages to reduce the complexity of digital infrared photography.
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| ? Gary Potts |
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[Editor's note: If you choose to purchase from Life Pixel, mention the name of my friend, photographer, Tony Sweet. Dropping his name when you order could save you some money or get you preferred service (not that LP isn't good to every customer!).Another company that is new to me (brought to my attention by Tony Sweet) is Kolorivision out of Raritan, New Jersey. I've not used this company, but fellow photographers speak highly of it. There are two things that caught my attention with Kolorivision: One, their IR conversion process is "reversible," (like some vasectomies!). You can convert a camera's sensor and then have the sensor switched back for regular shooting if you should ever need to. Two, they configure neutral density filters for infrared cameras that work well. Tony Sweet uses them for long exposure IR photography to get those sweeping clouds or moving water that add to the drama of the image. If you decide to use Kolorivision, access via Tony Sweet's link (http://bit.ly/kolarivision_tonysweet) for a $10 discount .
Another great company for having cameras converted is Spencer's Camera based in Alpine, Utah. I purchased an IR-converted LUMIX DMC LX7 point-and-shoot with 4x optical zoom from them and have enjoyed using it to make many IR images. Spencer's, too, has a host of educational information on their site and are more than happy to discuss IR or Full Spectrum camera conversion with you.
Should you decide to purchase from Spencer's use this code: RADDREW25 (or mention my name when you call). You'll get $25 off purchases of $150 or more, and 10% off purchases that are less than $150. In addition to these discounts, you will receive priority service, including faster completion of orders! I don’t make anything on this the one; it’s just a nice thing Spencer's does for my contacts. Software is easier to discount, so any discount at all on the fixed cost of hardware is great!]
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| ? Gary Potts |
So, you’ve converted a camera (at a current cost of about $375 +/-) to digital infrared, now what?
But I’m getting ahead of myself, and a better question to ask at this point is “why should I shoot infrared?” The flip answer is “because you can”, but a more cogent answer is that digital infrared images offer you more variety, more latitude, and perhaps greater creativity in your pursuit of the winning image. In general, images taken in deep black and white infrared display bold black and whites, darken the skies, and turn most all foliage to various shades of white. The ethereal effects of infrared are most pronounced in the image “Fallen Dreams”taken at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana. Note the skies and equally view the grass and the foliage. Inanimate objects like stone would typically render as normal monochromatic representations in infrared.
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| ? Gary Potts |
There’s so much more to say about all this. What shutter speed and f-stop and ISO you ask? Start with a bright sunny day with an ISO of 200, a shutter speed of 1/60th second and shoot at f8 or f11. Your histogram, while not exactly accurate for measuring infrared light levels, gives a decent approximation of your exposure. Adjust your next shot from there. What about focus? Infrared light focuses at a different place in the film plane to daylight. Images can be blurry if you rely entirely on your camera’s AF feature or even focus manually. LifePixel solves that during conversion such that your converted DSLR will now be ‘tuned’ to auto-focus in the infrared spectrum. This takes away much of the guesswork or special lens settings from the film days.
We could go further, but you have the idea, you have some new information, and you have at least one website from which to learn even more. Give it some thought, especially if you’re in the market for a new camera and are wondering if it’s worth it to put the old one on eBay or another similar online site. Your new images in INFRARED may be all you need to convince yourself you’ve added to your photo portfolio and have made a wise choice!
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Thanks for reading everyone, and thanks, Gary Potts, for a great post! If you have any comments or questions, please email me here . I'll share any comments that are directed to Gary.
To see some of the IR images I've created with my LUMIX DMC LX7, visit my Infrared Gallery.
Also, I process my IR images using Topaz Studio and Topaz Labs plugins and adjustments, and I love the results! To see how I process IR images in Topaz, see my Topaz Webinar videos on YouTube. I usually process one IR Image per webinar.
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