Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Acapulco became en vogue in the 1950s and 60s with the arrival of vacationing Hollywood A-listers like John Wayne and Frank Sinatra. The city was also a Love Boat port-of-call. Acapulco remains quite popular with Mexican travelers, especially since it’s the closest beach to Mexico City.—East Village Nomad
The above quote contains some of the reason that I enjoyed my two visits to Acapulco, Mexico—the romance of 1950 movies and movie stars. Well before Acapulco become a less popular travel destination, Frontier Airlines invited me and a bunch of travel writers to join them on the first direct flight from Denver to Acapulco. When arriving, we were met at the terminal by mariachis and the mayor of the city, who personally welcomed us to his city. A year later, I was invited to be the photographer accompanying a reporter from Denver’s La Voz newspaper on a visit to the city, when today’s featured was made. I still have a ceramic mask that was a gift from a local art school on display in my office along with many lovely memories from both trips.
Infrared Travel Photography
On my second trip to Acapulco, I brought along a Canon EOS D60 that had been converted for infrared capture by Life Pixel using their Standard IR (720nm) conversion. The impetus for bringing this camera, along with an EOS 5D Mark I, was to shoot some images that were somewhat different from the typical travel photography fare. I don’t remember submitting any of these images to La Voz; they were mostly for my personal use. (Maybe I did.)
One of the advantages of shooting infrared photographs is that the medium can transform seemingly mundane subject matter into striking monochrome images. Everyday scenes you might walk right by and never think of photographing, take on a more dramatic look when seen under infrared light.
To give foliage that characteristic infrared glow, it’s a good idea to shoot at time of day when there’s more sun on the scene, which puts your optimum time around mid-day! This may not the best times to make conventional color images but these are the “golden hours” for infrared photography. If you need a rule of thumb, try this: the best time of day to shoot digital IR is the worst time of day to shoot normal images. This image was made around 8:00 AM because when you’re traveling you can’t always be in the right spot at the right time to get the right results. But I’d rather have this image than none. I did shoot some color images at The Chapel of Peace with the EOS 5D but, to tell the truth, I like these IR images better.
How I Made this Shot: I photographed La Capilla de la Paz (The Chapel of Peace) in Acapulco, Mexico with an IR-converted Canon EOS D60 and Tamron AF 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 Di-II SP LD Aspherical (IF) Lens at 18mm. Exposure was 1/90 sec at f/11 and ISO 400. The RAW file was converted to monochrome with Silver Efex and toned platinum with PhotoKit.
Using Infrared Filters
One way to check if your camera is capable of infrared capture using filters is to point a TV remote control at the lens, push a button, and take a picture or look at the image on the camera’s LCD screen. If you see a point of light, you’re ready to make IR digital images (with a filter) but this test is not infallible as a reader has pointed out. The only bulletproof digital infrared test is to stick an IR filter in front of your camera and make a test shot. Which IR filter?
For most of my filtered digital IR images I use Hoya’s Infrared (R72) filter because it’s affordable and works great. In smaller sizes, such as 52mm, the Hoya R72 costs about $42 making it a bargain for digital infrared photography. The Standard IR filter in my converted EOS D60 is the equivalent to a Hoya R72 Filter or a Kodak Wratten 89b filter. Cokin offers a 007 (87B) filter that’s available in different sizes, if you can find them. Tip: When using Cokin modular filters in their holder visible light can leak in from the sides and pollute the IR image. Instead of a holder I use my fingers and hold the filter flat against the front of the lens. The camera should be on a tripod anyway because the optical density of all IR filters produces long exposure times.
Fans of premium filters from B+W and Heliopan will have to spend more, if only because IR filters are, by their nature, expensive. Singh-Ray’s I-Ray infrared filter is available in two versions: The 690 IR filter emits sufficient infrared light to create pleasing infrared images in either color and black and white. Their 830 I-Ray filter is engineered to eliminate visible and ultraviolet light, so what reaches your sensor is pure infrared. I started my infrared journey long ago using Hoya’s Infrared filter mainly because of price. Before switching to IR converted cameras, I started using Singh-Ray’s I-Ray infrared filters,and these (expensive) filters are simply amazing.
For more on infrared travel photography check out of the link in the RELATED posts shown below.
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 my Panasonic Lumix G-series cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.
Used copies of my book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography are currently available from Amazon for $16.00, as I write this. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and new copies are available from Amazon for $16.16 with used copies starting at seven bucks.