A book covering how to do it, what you need and how you might apply it.
Digital Infrared Photography
By Patrick Rice
Amherst Media, 2005
ISBN 1584281448
This book is one of a small number that cover this topic. The author is a professional photographer from Ohio. The book claims to cover everything you need to know about digital infrared imagine.
The book is divided into 11 chapters:
* Light
* Film Photography
* Digital vs. Film
* Cameras
* Lenses and Filters
* Shooting Techniques
* Infrared and Flash
* How Infrared Sees
* Weddings and Portraits
* Printing Strategies
* Finishing Touches
An introduction briefly covers the history of infrared and the technical applications of IR.
The book is profusely illustrated throughout, with both the work of the author and the many contributors that the book has. Fortunately or unfortunately most of these illustrations are from the wedding/portrait genre. Fortunately if that is your interest, unfortunately if your interest is in landscape, fine art or other areas.
The book does a pretty reasonable job of covering what you need to know to make a good go of IR digital photography. To me there are gaps in what it covers in terms of things like camera sensitivity and the way that an IR filter interacts with the camera’s filtration, as well as the conversion from color to monochrome options, to pick some examples. To compensate the book does a good job covering the choice of IR filters, special conversion of digital cameras and the general processes and choices involved in shooting in IR.
So this is not an all-encompassing book but it does do a good job of covering most of the topics required. For those new to digital IR this book will get you off to a good start. This book is absolutely perfect for wedding and portrait photographers who wish to add IR to their repertoire. The illustrations and so much of the content is perfect for such readers. Landscape and fine art photographers will need to view this as a book for the technical and mechanical aspects and seek inspiration elsewhere. Up to date in regards to digital cameras to the date of publication, any book on digital anything really needs a resource listing to point to web sites that will contain up-to-date information on digital camera IR capabilities, do-it-yourself removal of IR blocking filters, etc. In reality it is a minor point since a Google search will turn them up pretty quickly but I would expect an author to make an attempt to include some qualified web references.
All round, this is a pretty good book covering a broad and somewhat challenging area. People photographers will be more immediately turned on by this book’s illustrations, but the content is relevant to everyone. Recommended.