Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“To me, infrared photography is not a special effect like some Instagram filter, it’s a different way of looking at photography and light and the world itself.”— Dean McIntyre
Even though I’ve been experimenting with IR capture since the 1970’s with Kodak’s color and black & white infrared film, and I have ordered some of Rollei’s Infrared film and am anxious to try it out when Spring has really sprung in the Rockies. Interestingly, the film is available in both 35mm formats and in a different version in 120 rolls.
After I had several of my Panasonic Lumix mirrorless cameras converted for to infrared capture, I had the same kind of euphoria that everyone having their first IR experience feels. Here’s what happens: You run around taking pictures of everything and stuff that appears mundane when captured in color but looks so different in infrared, so much that my wife Mary calls the effect “dreamy.”
How I made this shot: The Mount Evans Scenic Byway is the highest paved passenger route in North America. It ends at 14,130 feet above sea level, or 20 feet higher than the much more famous and popular Pikes Peak Highway. Mary and I made the drive and were doing a little —after a picnic—when I made this image with a Panasonic Lumix G6 that had been converted to infrared capture by Life Pixel using their Enhanced IR (665nm) filter. Lens was a Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 at 24mm (48mm equivalent.) Exposure was 1/80 sec at f/11 and ISO 400. It was converted to monochrome using the Silver Efex plug-in.
In a previous post called Infrared Portraits and Depth-of-Field, I featured an environmental portrait shot using color infrared techniques. It’s a different look from today’s featured photograph, one that some may like, while others may not. In fact that image was one of the images cut by the publisher from my book Available Light Glamour Photography. because the editor didn’t like it.
This hatred seems to be a trend amongst a certain kind of publisher, since the finished image that’s featured in this post was cut from an article I wrote for a national publication aimed at professional photographers by an editor who deemed it “demonic.” Although nobody could possibly consider the lovely Ms. Stoneman as anything but angelic. Maybe I understand… at least somewhat. Infrared portraiture is not to everyone’s taste.
Due to the general unpredictability of all infrared photography, not all IR images turn out this well (or at least I think so) but why not give it a try. But no matter what happens I promise that you will have fun.
I’ve found that Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and they’ve done most of the conversions for some of 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 with new copies available for $15.75 and used copies starting for around the same price as I write this. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon new for $11.46 with used copies starting for around two bucks.