Mere colour can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.
– Oscar Wilde.
As many people know, the weather in the UK isn’t very predictable and a day of wandering in the woods in the sunshine must be snapped up whenever the opportunity arises. As many photographers will tell you, bright sunshine is not always the best scenario for a good photo. The scene will often end up looking flat and uninteresting, bereft of contrast, shadows and texture. However, there’s a remedy for this! – Infrared photography.
Not only does IR photography allow us to photograph with great results in the bright rays of the sun, it in fact welcomes bright sunshine in order to enhance the image. The brighter the sun on the trees and plant life becomes the more they will sing and create interesting images.
The reason for this? Infrared reflected light. Regular cameras are unable to see this reflected light but with a converted camera it can be recorded and the results are really interesting.
The image above is my Sony A7 that has had its sensor modified to see the full spectrum of light. Basically the sensor is now able to see all light frequencies. Despite our own eyes not being able to see them looking through viewfinder of the camera reveals all the reflected light in the frame.
So, get a camera modified to see IR (and other) reflected light and off you go – Sounds simple right? Well there’s a little more to it than that. You have different options if you want to get to the same destination.
At this point it’s worth talking a little bit about the different light frequencies that can be captured and how they appear in images and how they can be seen. Various frequencies will appear differently to the sensor, some will make leaves appear with a yellowish hue, others with a creamy white colour and more. These light frequencies sit between the visible part of the spectrum (that we see with the naked eye) and the thermal spectrum.
You can buy cameras (with pre-converted sensor) in different ‘flavours’, some of these will be fixed to capture a specific frequency and as such you can only capture that. However, if you opt for a full spectrum conversion you can then fit different filters to your lens and capture whichever you choose. It’s a more expensive option to do this as you have to buy the filters for your specific lens but it also allow you more choice.
- 590nm – Produces nice yellow hues (See the above image),
- 665nm – This will produce a more muted yellow tone in plant life and trees.
- 720nm – The Standard IR look with Black and White. (White leaves).
- 850nm – Similar to the 720 but gives a more contrasty look and a deeper black in the sky.
- IR Chrome – This is a newer filter available from Kolari Vision which gives the look of the now discontinued Kodak Aero Chrome with rich reds and blues skies.
Once you have your modified camera you can now go out and start shooting! As I mentioned above, bright Sunshine is the key to getting decent IR images as the reflected light from the flora and fauna is far more intense.
One of the interesting things about shooting IR is that scenes that may not necessarily be very pleasing in the regular spectrum suddenly become much more worthwhile. You can literally ‘see into’ a different world of colour and light. For me it definitely adds a childlike sense of fun to going out and shooting again. Seeing ‘what’s not there’ seems to never get old.
There is some Photoshoppery needed once you have the images on your computer. The Red and Blue channels will need to be swapped to get the colours of the leaves and the sky the ‘right’ way round. (Note: This is not the case with the IR Chrome which needs no channel swapping and comes out of the camera as is). Moreover, it is not imperative that you do so. Many people prefer to leave the channels as is. There are no hard and fast rules.
One of the great things about working in the IR spectrum is that once you get to the post production phase the options are endless in terms of painting with the colour palette, Both Photoshop and Lightroom can work manipulate the colours in all sorts of interesting ways. Desaturating certain areas and changing the hue of others. You are only limited by how much you want to experiment.
Personally I have only just begun to explore this workflow and have found that often both Photoshop and Lightroom behave in ways that you would least expect them to. This is all part of the fun of IR and the results can be really unique. There are lots of users on Instagram and no doubt elsewhere that have some truly gorgeous work to check out and many of them are very different and creative.
I’ve definitely found a great deal of inspiration since venturing into IR photography, it can be really refreshing to take a break from your regular image making and spend the summer months discovering a ‘secret spectrum’ of colours and textures. You can never be sure what you’re going to get and for me that has made it all the more enjoyable.
Disclaimer – All the images featured in this article are copyright of William Adams. The information contained on https://blog.williamadamsphoto.com website and blog.williamadamsphoto.com is for general information purposes only. The external links included within this article are subject to change and are included purely for reference purposes. I am not affiliated with or in the employment of these external sites.