Taking Infrared Photos

Helium_Junkie · 4 Jan 2008 at 22:02

Hi all

All I keep getting back from google is information on making non-infrared pictures look infrared, which is annoying. So I have some questions I hope you chaps can answer

1. What do I do with white balance? Can I not just set it to the current light?
2. How do I process the image afterwards?
3. Is there a problem with some lenses and IR? How can I find out if my lenses are suitable?
[edit:] 4. Focus/meter and then slide filter in?

Many thanks

[edit:] This is because I just added a cokin ir to my kit

Hoping to play tomorrow!

rpstewart · 4 Jan 2008 at 23:01

1) The normal approach is to use a custom white balance using a shot of whatever you want to appear white in the final image, usually grass.

2) You can leave it as is if you want but most people swap the red and blue channel values over - google Brad's IR action.

3) Trial and error usually, the Canon 50mm f/1.8 is very good, the 24-70L is very bad. The high end lenses tend to have coatings to stop IR interfering with visible light photography so generate hotspots and lens flare when working in the IR range.

4) Yup but I'd suggest metering manually. With a Canon you'll need several seconds exposure, Nikons have a less agressive IR cut filter and hence tend to be capable of shorter exposure times.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 4 Jan 2008 at 23:29

Take a photo of a close crop portion of the grass in sunlight with the ir filter on. Expose that photo correctly and then go into your Custom white balance option within the menu and select that last image you shot. Then set your white balance as the custom one. (odd shape)

Process it later with a boost in contrast (depending on your own prefered style of IR boost the saturation. I do a color and a selective color type with mine)

Photoshop: Swap the red and blue channel in channel mixer 100-0 0-100
Maybe an auto color.

To get them looking half decent you are gonna wanna mess with your hue/saturation settings. I do.

Hope this helps.

GeX · 5 Jan 2008 at 01:04

i set custom white balance off grass, then the IR shots ive done in the past ive simply auto levelled them in photoshop. (it was before i knew the software any better, and use lightroom to process them now, but i think mine have come out well)

http://tackycheese.net/images/misc/ir_play/DSC_0012.JPG
http://tackycheese.net/images/misc/ir_play/DSC_0027_AL_CROP_small.jpg
http://tackycheese.net/images/expl/whittingham/2807/20_nurses_home_IR.jpg

Helium_Junkie · 5 Jan 2008 at 01:39

Brilliant

Thanks guys. Never played with custom WB before

Helium_Junkie · 5 Jan 2008 at 16:19

So I took a few about an hour ago, and every picture is utterly destroyed by lens flare, also when I swap the channels all I get is an extremely blue image :confused:

What am I doing wrong?

Is the time of day (position of sun) important? It was quite close to setting...

Helium_Junkie · 5 Jan 2008 at 16:25

An example:

http://www.tiltedsky.net/files/images/irtest1.jpg

I started out by taking a shot of grass with the filter on and setting that image as WB through the menu, does that mean the images shouldnt have come out red?

I know I've done something wrong... I just don't know what!

rpstewart · 5 Jan 2008 at 16:42

Did you set the camera to use the custom white balance as well? On Canons all the menu setting does is tell the camera what to do if you select the custom setting on the white balance control.

wez130 · 5 Jan 2008 at 16:44

the best time for IR photo's is 1st thing in the morning, after the sun has risen, and also before it sets too.

Helium_Junkie · 5 Jan 2008 at 16:45

Then my timing wasnt an issue, I've ordered a cokin hood to try and eliminate the flare.

I did set the camera to the "pre" mode (well, it did automatically) after selecting the grass shot. Hang on i'll upload that.

http://www.tiltedsky.net/files/images/grasswb.jpg

I took that, then used the menu option "White Balance -> White Balance Preset -> Use Photo -> Select Photo (That one)"
After that the WB on all the images I took stayed at PRE.

So... when you do it right the pictures shouldnt come out completey red huh?

Also, can IR be done at night?

rpstewart · 5 Jan 2008 at 17:07

wez130 said:
the best time for IR photo's is 1st thing in the morning, after the sun has risen, and also before it sets too.

I'd disagree with that. For IR you need as much light as possible since the IR component is so small therefore around noon tends to give better results. Since the images are pretty much monochrome you don't need the warming effect of the golden hours.

Helium_Junkie · 5 Jan 2008 at 17:20

Well, I'll try and do the WB again tomorrow and hope it works right...

At least the trip wasnt a 100% failure, with some creative channel mixing I made something of one picture.

greengiant · 5 Jan 2008 at 17:39

Might get better results using a screw in IR filter? That way no light can leak past which could happen using a slot based filter system?

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 5 Jan 2008 at 18:27

in light of the subject allow me to post some of my infrared examples using several different processing methods.

Examples:

1, Typical

2, Snowy

3, Strong color

4, Suttle

5, Balanced

6, Classic

7, High Speed IR for portraiture

8, Into the sunset (just taken today)

Johnny

n30_mkii · 5 Jan 2008 at 18:37

Would be nice to have a little explanation on the techniques used on those Johnny, thats if you have the time of course. A great bunch of IR photos they are too! Snowy and balanced being my favourites. I guess portrait work takes a modified camera?

33L · 5 Jan 2008 at 18:47

hey fstop11 you modified your canon - do you have a guide as to how. im looking at modding a 350d btw

Helium_Junkie · 5 Jan 2008 at 18:54

Can anyone identify what was wrong with the image I took for white balance?

Could anyone please post a picture that is correctly taken, before processing, so I can see what mine should look like on camera?

wez130 · 5 Jan 2008 at 19:16

i thought you were supposed to take the WB photo without the IR filter.

Here's a couple of my shots.

those were using brads IR action (swapping red and blue channels over)

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 5 Jan 2008 at 19:16

Helium_Junkie said:
Can anyone identify what was wrong with the image I took for white balance?

Could anyone please post a picture that is correctly taken, before processing, so I can see what mine should look like on camera?

Set that as your custom white balance now.
go into your menu and press custom WB. it will bring up your photos, choose that one. Then in your white balance selector choose the custom one. Its a triangle logo or something.

n30_mkii · 5 Jan 2008 at 19:27

So to confirm the WB reference photo of 'grass' should be taken with the IR filter on otherwise it wouldn't do much. How much processing was done on your shots fstop after the initial shot? Could you post a before and after shot so we can see?