i n f r a r e d p h o t o g r a p h y
I fell in love with Infrared photography the first time I ever saw it. In my opinion, you either love it or hate it, but you are rarely indifferent to it.
First of all, if ever you are interested in trying this kind of photography, you need the right equipment. This means that you need an infrared digital camera that is sensitive to infrared light. You also need an infrared filter that will attach at the end of your lens. These filters are very dark, and the most common ones are the Hoya R72 filter, Wratten, Tiffen, and Heliopan. I have had very good results with the Hoya R72. You can also use the A25 red filter for a milder form of infrared image, set your cmera to either black and white or to color (requiring further edits with Image graphic editing software - i.e. Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Photo Impact, etc.).
(Some infrared filters include Tiffen 87, #87C, and Hoya R72 (87B) filters, and newer 3.3+ megapixel cameras work well with #88A and #89B filters ) - The table below was taken directly from http://www.tedfelix.com/IR/
Filter Wratten Effect Wavelength Price B+W 092 89b low? 650nm mid Heliopan RG 715 88a ? 715nm? ? Hoya R72 ? low 720nm budget Tiffen #87 87? mid 800nm mid B+W 093 87c high 850nm mid Hoya RM-90 ? high? 900nm very expensive
I personally shoot everything in color, so my images basically come out of the camera having various shades of burgundy red, lighter tones being pinkish. Here is an example - look at the top left hand corner:
Once I get the image out of the camera, the fun begins - I mean, editing in Photoshop is the artistic interpretation that I give to photography, more precisely to infrared photography. Please see some of my images to get an idea as to how artistic one can become with photo editing software. I use digital filters from NIK color and sharpening filters, use graphic plugins from Auto FX Software, some editing tools like Channel Mixer, Auto Color, Lab Mode and Channels for desaturation, etc... from Adobe Photoshop, and some fun filters from Flaming Pear.
For more information on the names of cameras more likely to provide positive results, please read here.
O T H E R U S E F U L A N D I N T E R E S T I N G L I N K S:
Everything you wanted to know about Infrared Photography but were afraid to ask.....