IR photography

[Grady Weed]

I see on BPN a lot of IR images. For instance; Michael Pancier seems to love IR. I have never heard of it till I started going to Photography forums like Photomigrations and now BPN. May I ask of the artist's here, what is the the big draw to IR photography? Is it a sort of like Black and White with a twist? Just curious what all the excitment is about. I also noticed you have to convert a camera to it's exclusive use.

I see some very good artists like Fabs doing it as well. Her "conventional or traditional" images, like Avian, Landscape images etc are very nice. She also teach's photography I hear. And from what I hear she is very good at it. Now I like to be open minded and explore different ways to express my artistic feelings, for lack of a better way to express that point, and I do not have anything againist IR. Just do not know how it came about and why it seems to be so attractive to some.

Perhaps Fabs and Michael can enlighten me. And if others have opinions or can be helpful, feel free to jump in.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Grady I'm sure both will give their opinions soon.

IR images allow you to expand your creative vision. There are several types, Black & While, Color and extra saturated .. you need to have the camera converted to each. btw can do yourself or have it converted. Most people start by converting a point and shoot then if you like it send an SLR !!! .. try it you might like it !!! btw one good thing about the IR is that the more contrast the better so they are good for mid day !!!

[Michael Pancier]

Grady, IR photography using film has been around for ages. the original IR film was B&W and required loading and unloading in a dark bag. You had to shoot through opaque filters, really wing it on focusing and hope your image came out. In bright sun, especially with a lot of foilage, you'd get some wild effects...dreamlike.

With digital, all the issues you'd get with the shooting IR film are essentially gone. I first started seeing the use of digital IR with wedding photographers and folks like Monte Zucker who used it to take bridal shots and take it to that next step; providing an almost surreal look. With portraits, IR gives a porcelain look and is very elegant. A friend of mine Mike Jones who's an amazing photographer turned me on to digital IR for nature and landscape work. He had a converted D20. I tried out his IR camera at the Wave and got some amazing images.

I had my old 20d lying around and not being able to get anything for it so I decided to send it out to Lifepixel for a deep IR B&W conversion. B&W was my first passion but not knowing how to process film, I was not happy with the proofs I'd get back from the lab which were always flat. I would scan the negatives and tweak them. My favorite B&W film was Agfa Scala which was the only B&W positive film. It was great, but they went belly up as did the processing labs. Digital B&W IR kind of reminds me of Scala since you can get those dark skies and punched up clouds in camera which is what I like to go for. And like positive film, you got your sky exactly as you shot it; not having to do all the burning and dodging like film. So once I started shooting in IR, it definately opened up a new area of possibilities. First, for IR, the harshest light is your best light. So it gives you something to shoot during those hours where you'd stay at the bar or hotel room.

And like I said, sometimes a mundane scene in color, looks amazing in IR. One of my favorites was this shot I took in the Magic Kingdom of all places ... http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3096/2630123025_27013c0e28_o.jpg

A scene we've seen every day in endless snapshots, but in deep IR, it looks dreamlike.

Others like to opt for the color IR and that yields really crazy scenes sometimes. But for my taste, I prefer B&W. B&W, unlike color, is not meant to represent reality. So at least for me, it's more surreal and artsy I guess....The difference between the Deep IR and Color IR is that the Deep IR will yield stronger IR effect; darker skies; more contrast than the color which is what I like. The color IR will yield martian landscapes and requires probablly more PS work (unlike the original Kodak color IR film) ....

Of course even Al looks better in IR .... http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11329&stc=1&d=1209951664

[Grady Weed]

Michael

That explanation has a lot more sense to it. The link to Mouse land really set off the "light". Now that you mentioned wedding photography, I can see how some may like to have a few portraits in the album done that way.

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Grady, sorry to be late to the party and thanks for your kind words :)

SInce I'm not too B&W oriented, I prefer the color IR versions and had one D200 converted to standard color IR.
I don't use it as often as I should and I like the white vegetation against the blue skies. Before I had the camera converted, I used a Hoya IR filter, but it was a pin, because my camera at the time (10D) didn't work in IR, so I had to focus before putting the filter on and had to use very long exposures, terrible thing on a windy day. It was fun, though...

Trying new things keeps me motivated, it would be boring to do the same thing over and over, al least to me.
Good luck!!!!