Infrared Photography
Infrared photography is a look into the invisible world. The human eye can see wavelengths from about 400nm-700nm (from purple to red); infrared is the light beyond 700nm.
21/03/20 - I receive my infrared converted camera. Nikon D70s converted to 590nm meaning that it will allow a little bit of colour into the sensor. 590nm is often known as "Super Colour".
I take it out to Balmaha, one of my favourite places for images of trees and water and one of my identified locations in my GU plan. I am not used to shooting with a Nikon so take the time to familiarise myself with the camera and it’s settings, in particular the exposure which I know needs extra attention on an IR converted camera.
My first unedited shot demonstrated the standard brown sky and blue trees achieved by infrared photography when the white balance has been custom set on the camera. At this point RAW images were showing as varies shades of red but jpegs used the custom set white balance to calculate the look that could be achieved. This was helpful when first learning as I was able to better view the images as I was taking them. Unfortunately at first I was trying to edit the jpegs from the camera.
I was changing the saturation and hue, focusing on the colours that could be achieved and had not given much thought to the quality of the image. At first I was quite pleased with these images however as I was researching infrared images I found that I could see many areas where my images were lacking but did not know at this point how to make improvements. I decided more practice (and research!) was needed.
Infrared photography produces some very distinct effects which make them aesthetically pleasing. The most striking difference is the “Wood Effect”, an effect where leaves reflect light giving them a bright white look. This effect is named after the photographer Robert W. Wood. This effect is utilized for landscape photography where it can be used to produce surreal color landscapes or high contrast black and white photographs.
24th March – UK Government imposes lock down due to covid-19 pandemic.
UK Lock Down
The government guidance says people should only leave home for one of four reasons:
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Shopping for basic necessities such as food and medicine. Shopping trips should be as infrequent as possible
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One form of exercise a day such as a run, walk, or cycle. This should be done alone or only with people you live with
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Any medical need, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person. This includes moving children under the age of 18 between their parents' homes, where applicable. Key workers or those with children identified as vulnerable can continue to take their children to school
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Travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home
Even when following the above guidance, people should minimise the amount of time spent out of their homes and should keep two metres (6ft) away from people they do not live with.
This obviously had a huge impact on the plan that I had for my graded unit.
I would not be able to use my 720nm filter as planned as I could not stop to set up a tripod on my daily exercise. I was no longer able to access the locations that I had identified in my graded unit plan - Balmaha and Tenerife were way outside my hours daily exercise from my front door so I knew I had to re evaluate what I would be shooting. I began taking the infrared camera out on my daily walks, trying out different locations near to my home and at times was pleasantly surprised at the results.
Places that I had grown up knowing well, the normal mundane backdrop to my life could be transformed in to a wonderland that only I could see.
It made me think about other places nearby. I would sit in the evenings with a map and visualise nearby locations with greenery that may be worth visiting on my one chance to get out per day.
Before I had purchased my converted camera I had bought a 720nm filter from a Glasgow based photographer who dabbled in a bit of infrared. I decided to ask her for any advice she may have with regards to editing as I still felt that I was not quite getting it right. She was kind enough to send me some videos of her own editing process, including the use of Nikon Capture XD to open the file from the camera instead of Bridge or Photoshop. This one bit of advice made a huge difference to my editing process as I no longer had to correct the white balance after import. Having access to this kind of expertise was inspirational and I was driven to find out more and practice practice practice!
I also followed infrared photographers on Instagram and joined groups dedicated to infrared on Facebook.
The Process
My camera is a Nikon D70s camera converted to 590nm. This conversion means that the filter allows some colour in to the camera’s sensor. This is sometimes also known as a “Super Colour” conversion and is thought to be the most versatile as in the editing stage it is possible to create the same look as full infrared or hyper colour.
When taking infrared images on a converted camera you have to set a custom white balance using grey card or pavement as a reference point. When the camera takes the image it can sometimes show originally as a very red image as seen below.
This can happen if there is no white balance set or if you are opening the RAW file in an application such as Photoshop (as opposed to the camera manufacturers software). When opened in Nikon Capture XD (or when the white balance has been adjusted in Photoshop) it looks like the image below – with a bronzed sky and blue foliage.
This image is now ready to “channel swap” which is when the red in the red channel is reduced to 0 and the blue raised to 100.
Blue in the blue channel is reduced to 0 and the red raised to 100.
Here is the image after the channel swap adjustment.
The sky is now blue and the foliage yellow. This result may differ slightly depending on several factors including the amount of sunlight in the shot, how warm a day it was etc. Once you have swapped the channels you may be happy with this image and technically the steps up until now cover the basics of Infrared Photography however for many infrared photographers this is just the starting point of the creative process.
As an example I have created 2 very different looking images from the channel swapped picture above. The first keeps the yellow tones of the foliage and blue sky but I have made adjustments in camera raw to the contrast, colour temperature, colour saturation and hue, I have brought down the highlights and added in shadows and blacks. I have also increased the clarity and density to further bring out details in the trees. This process will often have to be repeated several times until you reach the finished result which you can see below.
With repeated alterations to colour hue, saturation and luminance I could change the colours in the image to anything that I want. I can also change it to black and white and change the individual colours within that to create an image that looks as though it was taken at 720nm. As below. Note the traditional black sky and white foliage.
And this is how my graded unit came together - my plan had to change as the world hunkered down in fear. I decided that rather than identifying random locations based purely on aesthetics that instead while my hometown was under siege from a deadly virus I would transform it in to something magical. Bringing beauty to the parks and walkways left empty due to covid-19.
My new found passion for infrared made learning an adventure and every day I could see little improvements as each image was finished. I have showcased my favourites on the homepage of this website (which acts as my presentation as I am not able to complete my original presentation plan of a photobook).
Dhyani Crawford
