Today’s Post by Joe Farace
All bodies are radiant but not all radiance is visible: stars radiate visible light; planets and donkeys and couches radiate infrared waves.—Amy Leach
If you’ve been reading any of my recent posts about Infrared photography, you might know that RGB infrared image files that are shot using a filter or with an IR-converted camera produce magenta-hued images that have to be converted to black and white to get the look you want—or do you? (Look for a new YouTube video on the use of filters or infrared camera conversions, real soon now.)
That may well be true when shooting in a highly intense IR filled environment, but what happens when that isn’t the case? The image at right is (one of) the SOOC results and to tell you the truth, I like the look.
How I Made This photo: I photographed Tia Stoneman in the kitchen of my former home using the soft disuse light from a North facing bay window. The camera used was a Canon EOS 50D that was converted to digital IR operation by LifePixel. Exposure was 1/13th of a second (handheld) at f/16 at ISO 400. Because of that slow shutter speed the image may not be crisp but the colors that you see were unmanipulated and appear just as the file came off the memory card. Tia’s hair is sort of auburn color that translated into a very cool blue.
This is just another way to create a color infrared image in camera. If there is any message in today’s featured images, it’s that you should always experiment! Don’t take what anybody, including me, says to be the absolute truth unless you try it yourself and see for yourself. There are far too many variables in digital IR capture for it to “be my way or the highway.”
I’ve found that Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and they have done most of the conversions for my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix G-series 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 $41.99 with used copies starting around $19 as I write this. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon with new copies selling for $25.90 and used copies starting at a little more than two bucks.