In The Eye of an Invisible Light

An Infra-Red Photography

I not only know how to take photograph and do photo editing I also know how to IR Photography. Do you?

What is IR Photography?

Infrared (I.R.) photography is about capturing invisible light that human eyesight cannot be detected.
The world will look different in IR Photography in terms of colours, textures, leaves and plants, human skin, etc. It opens up a new, different optical dimension for the photographer and a new way of looking at the world around us. It allows artists to create images that make infrared light-waves visible, even though they are unseen to the human eye. Very often the resulting photos are visions of a surreal and delicate world. Current applications of I.R. Photography include criminology and celestial photography.

How to take IR Photo?

There are two ways where you can take a IR Photo, technique used to take photo using these two different method are different as well as the colour developed and post-processing.

IR Converted Camera

With a modified infrared camera you will be able to shoot IR photo more easier as you don't need to bring a IR filter around and the exposure time are much more shorter so that you don't really need a tripod. There are shop that do IR modification to your camera, else you can Do-It-Yourself but it is not recommend as something may go wrong, however not all camera can be converted to a IR Camera. After you have convert your camera it will become a full spectrum camera which many people use for ghost hunting(kind of scary to me).

IR transmitting filters

Also called Infrared cut-off filters, IR filters or heat-absorbing filter, it is designed to reflect or block mid-infrared wavelengths while allowing visible light to pass through. Filter available from Hoya(R72) are from 52mm to 72mm, of course there are bigger filter where you can find in the market. As for unmodified camera you are require to use a tripod to take your photograph as it require long exposure, I am sure you don't want your photo to turn out blurry ;)

Photo and Tutorial

Here are a few pictures that I have took and after post-processing:

Canon EOS 450D full spectrum, f/6.3 1/80sec ISO-100

This was my first ever attempt to edit an ir photo and first time doing panorama shot, might not be a good job but among the rest this photo took me the longest time to edit.

Canon EOS 450D Full spectrum, f/9 1/160sec ISO-400

For this picture I played with the colours on channel mixer and black & white, as I never see real snow before this is what I have in my imagination.

Canon EOS 450D Full spectrum, f/8 1/125sec ISO-200

This was taken at the Forest Walk, it was a trail where you can choose to go up or down. In this picture I have a inspiration to split it into half as I am confuse of which way to go.

Canon EOS 450D Full spectrum, f/8 1/200sec ISO-200

This photo was not taken by me but I edited this, this is a very simple photo but somehow hard to edit because of the small leaves on the ground that took me time to colour it bit by bit.

Canon EOS 450D Full spectrum, f/8 1/125sec ISO-100

Editing landscape is not an easy job however editing a photo with human inside is even harder because it will take up a lot of time just to find the skin colour of a human, also by taking human in IR it will make the skin almost flawless and there might be some visible veins too.

Below is a playlist of IR Photography Tutorial on post-processing:

Visit us

That's all I have here, to learn and find out more do visit us as we will be having an exhibition at Singapore National Library from 2nd November 2013 to 10 November 2013 10:00 AM - 09:00 PM. Do head down for the sharing session to learn more about IR Photography on 10 November 2013 and experience the live demonstration on post-processing also to look at the photo we have took and edited. RSVP Now!

Exhibition is supported by the National Arts Council Arts and Cultural Presentation Grant.