Today’s Post by Joe Farace
If your digital camera is not IR sensitive there are options other than filters for shooting infrared, including converting your camera into an IR-only DSLR or mirrorless camera.
After modification your camera becomes a dedicated infrared camera and you won’t be able to shoot conventional images with it, which is why I always suggest that you convert one of your old cameras that’s just sitting around collecting dust. That’s because its not inexpensive to convert the camera and it will then only capture IR radiation; it doesn’t become a thermal camera in case you want to see how well your home’s windows are sealed. With an IR-converted DSLR or mirrorless camera, there’s no need to place an IR filter on the lens, leaving the viewfinder clear so the camera to be hand held something IR film photographers can only dream about.
Once converted the camera will capture infrared images can look similar to images that might have been shot with Kodak’s HIE film when used with a #89B filter (there’s more about filters here) but you’ll need to converts it to monochrome to get an exact match. One upside is that the image wont have the grain/noise that you traditionally get with infrared film but it will display some kind of color as you can see in the above image that’s straight-out-of-the-camera.
How I made these shots: Above left is a typical daylight unprocessed (SOOC) image file that was shot with my Canon EOS 50D that was converted for IR capture by Life Pixel. To photograph Mary at an outdoors mall, I used a EF 22-55mm f/4-5/6 zoom lens with an exposure of 1/125 sec at f/8 and ISO 200. The bottom right image was creating by processing the same JPEG file using Silver Efex. Which one do you like better? You can have it either way or both ways.
I’ve found that Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and they’ve done most of the conversions for my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.
My book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography is available from Amazon for $17.93 with used copies starting at $13.93 as I write this. My other book, Creative Digital Monochrome Effects, has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon for $9.39 with used copies starting around two bucks, a deal no matter how you look at it.