Infrared Photography Tips and Techniques

Digital ImageMaker’s Infrared Photography Techniques and Tips

If you are considering giving digital infrared photography a go or have started, but need more information, this is the place to look. We list articles that will advance your technique, help you get the most out of your digital camera and develop your processing of images in Photoshop.

Shooting Infrared Photography Step By Step

In this tutorial we go step by step through shooting infrared with your normal, unmodified digital camera.

Processing Infrared Photography Step By Step

In this tutorial we go step by step through the processing of infrared images from an unconverted digital camera.

How digital infrared works

How is it that you can put an infrared filter on the front of effectively all digital cameras and get an IR image? In this article we set out to examine how this happens and how to interpret the results.

Review of the book Digital Infrared Photography

Digital Infrared With A Converted Camera

Whilst all digital cameras are capable of taking an infrared image if an IR transmitting/visible light blocking filter is used, exposures will be long. Converting a digital camera for IR work solves this and other issues.

The Importance of the Eyepiece Shutter

Lately I have been doing a lot of long exposure photography, both digital infrared and visible light.
In the process of doing this work I have had shots that have been spoilt by flares, fogging and other artifacts. It turns out that these effects were cause because I did not have my eye blocking the viewfinder and had not used the eyepiece blind that most cameras offer.

It Doesn’t Need to Stop When the Sun Goes Down: Night-time Infrared Photography

Many people fall into the trap of thinking that infrared photography is an activity for full sun and when confronted with a beautiful treed landscape or a portrait subject. Nothing could be further from the truth and you can use a camera for infrared photography whenever you like the results.

White Balance and Digital Infrared Images

We test various white balance settings for infrared images and come to the obvious conclusion.

Using Circular Polarizing Filters for Digital Infrared Photography

We don’t normally think of using polarizing filters when shooting infrared but I decided to try it out

Using a Lensbaby with an Infrared Converted Digital Camera

As part of our testing of a Lensbaby 3G, we could not resist putting a Lensbaby on our infrared converted Canon 350D digital SLR camera.

First light with my 350D converted to IR only

My Canon 350D arrived back today from LDP in the states (www.MaxMax.com) who converted it for infrared photography by removing the IR blocking filter and replacing it with a 715nm IR filter.

A Day of Shooting With My Infrared Converted Canon 350D

Sunday I was out shooting with my newly converted for IR 350D camera

Some More Infrared Photography

In this article I present some new infrared images, mostly taken with an infrared converted Canon 350D. For these shots I used a lens that others have warned not to use for infrared photography.

Planes, Trains and Infrared Photography

A recent plane trip had me shooting infrared the whole trip

The Advantage of Infrared from a Plane

Yesterday and today I was in Sydney for an Autodesk press event and, as usual, I took my converted for IR Canon 350D with me, and the results were interesting.

A Fisheye on Infrared (Faulty article but interesting pics)

You can see the corrected version of this article below. But I’ve left it so you can see the images.
As part of my testing of the Sigma 4.5mm F2.8 EX DC CIRCULAR FISHEYE HSM lens I went out with my Canon 350D that has been converted for infrared shooting. I was curious to see how the lens would perform in IR.

A Fisheye on Infrared (Corrected Article)

Sigma 4.5mm Circular Fisheye Lens in Infrared

The Sigma 10mm Fisheye Lens in Infrared

As part of my testing of this lens I did some infrared shooting with this lens and my IR converted Canon 350D.

More Infrared Shots with Fisheye Lenses

I was out all day yesterday with a stack of cameras and the Sigma 4.5mm and 10mm fisheye lenses

More Infrared Fisheye Images

I’ve found that the best way to shoot IR with this fisheye, because of the size of the field of view, is to use exposure bracketing with the camera set on continuous drive mode so that I can take three images in rapid succession with one press of the shutter button. This I have found to be the best way to handle the exposure variations in IR with such a wide field of view.

A Day of Shooting

I finally got away for a day of shooting. Here is some of the infrared photography I shot with my converted 350D.

Bushfire Creates Great Atmosphere for Infrared Photography

On part of this journey I drove into an area where there was a lot of smoke from some nearby bushfires. This smoke was creating interesting sky effects and so I started shooting as I travelled through the area, all the time making sure that I was well away from the fires and that none were getting closer (safety comes first).

Localized Image Enhancements in Photoshop, Part 1, 2, 3 and 4

I have always liked to modify small sections of images to enhance the overall balance. In this article we look at how to do this in Photoshop.

A Reconsideration of Images

There are so many options in what we do with our images. I know I have about a half-dozen techniques I use commonly on images and then more that I use infrequently.

When I return from a photo shoot there is a lot of immediate enthusiasm to download the images onto the computer, have a look at them and, picking out the highlight images, do some processing to get them into a finished state. This processing might just be a little Levels or Curves adjustment, depending on the lighting or subject matter, or it may be much more extensive.

6 thoughts on “Infrared Photography Tips and Techniques”

  1. Hi,
    let me thank you for very good articles regarding IR digital photography.
    I used to take pictures with IR films many years ago but now with a tiffen 87 I am beginning to work again.
    problem is the very long exposure.
    I am using two digital cameras, Fuji S9100 and Lumix FZ50,
    could either of them be converted?
    Many thanks again
    farhad

    1. I converted my panasonic lumix fz20 to shoot panchromatic. I simply removed the hot mirror. putting it back together was the hardest part because everything fits exactly, not much wiggle room. it takes great images and was a great way to reuse an older camera. only took about an hour with breaks included.

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