Welcome to the world of Near Infrared (IR) Photography!

In the olden days IR photography it was a kind of "do it yourself" thing with special film, filters, and processing, and, of course, Doc was one of early practitioners this art, and regularly incurred the family wrath for stinkin' up the house. Below are some thumbnails that you can click on to see some of those olden day (circa 1970's) shots:

Fortunately we have progressed from the home brew days of IR photography and with digital cameras life is very simple... point, shoot, correct, and print. Here are some results of Doc's latest efforts in the digital IR world:

And you might be asking, "How did you do that?", or, "Can I do that?" and, of course, the answer is, "Let me explain..."

IR photography can be as easy as a filter (Hoya R72 or Kodak Wratten 89b) and a tripod for your digital camera, or it can involve spending a few more dollars to actually convert your digital camera to IR. But before we get into the details of the "doing of it" and spending cash, let's take a look at just what is this IR thing?

Most of us are familiar with visible light... it is the stuff all around us which is really light waves from 380 to 750 nm wavelength. We may also be familiar with the Ultra Violet (UV) spectrum of light from our last visit to the beach... it's that skin cooking thing around 200 to 400 nm. But at the other end of visible light from UV is the stuff we want to learn about, the IR spectrum from 700 nm to 3000 nm. And for our photographic interests we really want to focus on near Infrared from 700 nm to 1400 nm (also used in night vision goggles). And contrary to some myths, near IR is not some sort of Xray vision, or "heat" pictures... rather it is that section of light just above our visual range... grass is white, the sky is red, windows are black, and everything just looks different.

Most digital cameras are sensitive to both visible and non-visible light (to include IR), but the manufacturers of those cameras typically block most of the IR spectrum with an internal filter to improve the visible part of your pictures. That leaves you with two options to take an IR photograph with a digital camera: (1) use a filter over the lense to block visible light and only let in the near IR wavelengths, or (2) replace the IR blocking filter inside the camera. Note that a few cameras have a "night vision" option, such as the Sony DSC-707 to some current models, that temporarily swings the IR blocking filter out of the way and by "tricking" the camera into thinking it is night (neutral density filter +4), you can click away in the IR spectrum.

Now the good and bad news... A good IR filter for your camera is not too expensive (the good part), but you will have to set up your camera on a tripod, focus the scene, and then screw in the almost black lense filter. Needless to say, you will not be able to see the photo until after the shot (the bad), and exposures will take multiple seconds (more bad). But money can fix a lot of things, and this problem is one of them. If you have your camera "converted" to shoot IR, everything will work like shooting normal visible photos (that is good). And if you think you want to do your own IR conversion and replace that old IR blocking filter inside your camera by yourself (could be bad), first check out what is involved. And BTW some digital camera are better candidates for IR conversion than others.

Of course, this is the simple coverage of near IR photography. In practice you can mix visible and near IR to get color IR (665 nm filter), and you can switch color channels (red to blue sky), and a whole lot of other stuff. If you really want to get a good tutorial and some expert information on this, go to the Life Pixel site and check them out. In the meantime, Doc will be out in the woods with his new toy taking lot's of IR pictures that you can check out on this site... <more stuff> <even more stuff> or our last adventure.