Black & White Infrared Photography
Black & White Infrared Photography
Infrared Photography allows you to photograph images that are formed by infrared radiation. Therefore, you are able to photograph your subjects in scenes that are beyond the upper limit of the visible band.
The range of wavelengths that covers the visible spectrum is from about 400 nanometers to about 700 nanometers. Nanometers (nm) is used as a measurement of the wavelength. It is one millionth of a millimetre.
According to Kodak, the longest wavelength of radiation recorded by photography is around 1350 nm. The infrared photography that I'm concerned with, such as when I would use Kodak's 35mm High Speed Black & White Infrared film, can record in the wavelength region of 700 to about 900 nm. This is what gives us that romantic, dreamy appearance that we get in black & white infrared photography.
Certain objects in a scene, such as foliage and grass, will reflect much of the infrared. Although, they absorb much of the visible light, they take on a glowing, radiating quality in an infrared photograph. The luminous appearance is even more apparent and dramatic when the scene is touched by sunlight.
Taken with Kodak HIE High Speed Infrared film in Contax 35mm Camera with 25mm lens
That was in the film days when I used my 35mm Contax 137 MA camera along with a Zeiss 25mm lens and red 25A Hoya filter. At that time my favorite B&W infrared film was Kodak's HIE High Speed Infrared film, which is no longer made. Now with Digital Camera Technology, one can learn to take beautiful black & white infrared images with a digital camera that captures in the infrared range or one that has been converted for infrared photography.
In a nutshell what this conversion does is remove the hot mirror filter or blocking filter that manufacturers place in front of the sensor to block infrared light. Another filter, called an Infrared passing filter is then put in place in front of the sensor. This filter allows light to pass that is near the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, but blocks most of the light in the visible range of the spectrum from reaching the sensor.
There are several companies who offer to do this modification. A choice of different filters are also offered so that you can choose the degree of the infrared spectrum you would like to record.
Using an infrared converted digital camera is an easy way for you to capture beautiful surreal images that were quite difficult and tricky in the film days. Using this method produces digital images that are close to what I would get from using Kodak HIE infrared film. However, the two things missing that I liked in the film was the grain and the glow these images would have.
Both the beautiful glowing effect of the film and the grain can be applied to the image using Diffuse Glow in photoshop. I also use the Scatterlight Portrait halo plug in filters from Andromeda that produce really beautiful soft focus effects.
Taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 Converted Infrared Camera with Wide Lens Adapted added
These are some of the methods I have used in my photography business to add to the variety of my work. And now with digital imaging, there are so many more possibilities. That's what makes photography so much fun. You can grow. You can change. You don't have to do the same things over and over if you don't want to.
To Learn more about black & white infrared photography and Camera conversions see the video below: