Thinking About Converting a Camera for Infrared?

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.—Albert Einstein

Questions, I Get Questions

I’m often asked about what kind of camera a photographer should choose to have converted to infrared-only capture. For me, that has always been a simple question: I pick the oldest one I own or the  one that I use the least.

Having that old camera converted to infrared will give it new lease on life and while it may lack the newest features– more megapixels and better image processing chip—of a new camera, I usually compensate for this by shooting all of my infrared images at a modest ISO setting, typically 400 and capturing in RAW format. As far as white balance is concerned, I don’t obsess about it like some IR practitioners do—not that there’s anything wrong with that. You can read some of my thoughts on the process here.

How I made this photograph: In fact, that’s the approach that I took with the above image when shooting an infrared-converted Olympus Pen E-P1, a golden oldie that was launched by the company back in 2009.

The E-P1 is basically a rebodied E-620 Four-thirds system camera that was re-imagined for Micro Four-thirds use. The lens used was a borrowed Olympus 9-18mm f/4-5.6 that was adapted for use on the E-P1 using the Olympus MMF-3 Four Thirds to Micro Four-thirds lens mount adapter.

The image was shot at one of the picnic grounds at Barr Lake State Park, near Brighton Colorado. Exposure was 1/320 sec at f/11 and ISO 400. Image was processed in Silver Efex Pro then Color Efex Pro using the Glamour Glow filter to warm up and add some Wood Effect glow to the foliage.