This has been an interest of mine for quite sometime after stumbling upon a gallery of images and fell in love with the effect straight away.There are a number of websites which feature SLR digital cameras which have been altered. I decided not to go down this avenue at this stage. I may even pick up an older model Sony DSC F828 or Minolta Dimage which work really well – I will see how my finances work out after my impending visit to the dentist!
I decided to go the other way - as this is really just for fun and somewhat satisfies part of my creative impulsive genetics - although - I must admit I have taken one or two wedding images with it in the past . You need to be careful though as eyes show up as black – so unless we want the whole”Twilight “movie effect (but even spookier) – it is best that the bride and groom look at each other and not the camera :). Summer is the best season to take the images - Mid summer, hot weather with good cloud formations in the middle of a hot day between 10 – 2pm is best – with the sun preferably to your back.
The camera I used was a Canon Power Shot G1 (3.3 megapixels) – This camera has not been altered and I purchased if off Trade-me after some furious bidding towards the end !
I don’t stress about the amount of megapixels…(Bigger is not ALWAYS better you know)..(LOL) .. You can still get reasonably sized A4 enlargements out of these though…
I actually have one of my infrared images as the photo on my eftpos card and everyone wonders where on earth all that snow is! Imagine their surprise when I tell them – well it’s actually at my place. I purchased the lens filter in the USA after ringing around a number of places here in New Zealand – (this was a few years ago now) so hopefully someone has had the initiative to supply them here. I must check again..:)
Here is an excellent tutorial on how to do digital infrared photography.
Settings for these shots:
Canon Power Shot G1
Tripod – MOST important
Lens filter Hoya - Infrared R72
ISO 50 (Choose the lowest ISO rating that you have as a general rule)
Aperture F 4.5
Shutter Speed is very slow anywhere from 1/15 – 2 secs
RAW - - - files are then uploaded /processed and through Adobe Lightroom then exported into Jpegs. Then I ran a Noiseware programme through some of them, as the longer the shutter speed the more noise you tend to get.
Articles of interest with a lot of information:::
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography http://www.infraredphoto.eu/Site/Welcome.html
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/infrared/
http://www.nature-photography-central.com/DigitalInfraredPhotography.html
Images
http://www.arendtgalleries.infraredwithminoltad7.photoshare.co.nz/
http://www.thekoala.infrared.photoshare.co.nz/
http://www.lenshare.com/2008/07/digital-ir-photography.html
