gazzman

I've just got myself an infra-red filter, but am confused how to use it.
I screwed it onto the lens, but cannot see a thing through the veiw-finder! It is totally blacked out.
Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong will help.
Thank you :)

snowbear

Yes - it is an IR pass filter; it blocks the visible light and only lets the infrared through.

Google "digital infrared photography" and there are a number of tutorials around. IIRC, you set the camera on a tripod, frame the shot, then put on the filter. Take a few test shots of green grass (a good IR reflector) - something like f/8 and several seconds. Repeat and adjust after viewing your results.

Also, be aware that IR focuses differently than visible light so your shots might be out of focus, so you may want to try smaller apertures.

Good luck.

gazzman

Thank you - will try next we get some decent light!

snowbear

I'd use the time until then going through some of the online IR tutorials.

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

You now have whats called an Infra Red Cutoff filter. This filter cuts off visible light to a certain point and this allows only infra red light to reach the sensor. These filters are a super deep red and they are used for making infra red black and white photos. Mount your camera on a tripod and compose your image as you want to shoot it. You cant hand hold the camera for this kind of work. When you have your image composed carefully attach the filter without disturbing the lens and then shoot the image. If your camera is a full frame type camera your exposure time will be between 1/2 second to 5 seconds at F 4. If your camera is a 1/2 frame camera type your exposures will be considerably longer in the 15-30 second range at F4. One problem that you may encounter is that some lenses have a hot spot when used for this purpose and you get a white spot in the center of your image, you have to test your lenses and find out which works best. When you open your images on your computer the images will be very red. Learning how to adjust these images in post processing is not that hard there are many youtube videos on the subject. Have fun with this, B&W infra red is amazing.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

Not sure what IR Filter you bought but try (manual) opening your aperture and setting your shutter speed to 2 seconds (a good start) then white balance off of grass that is in bright sun light.

Shoot in the middle of the day in bright sun. Shoot RAW as white balance is critical to getting good IR

Do not use lightroom or PS bridge to do post.

If you shoot nikon, use NX2, select the Marquis tool and white balance your image. Then load into PS and select the channel mixer, flip the blue and red channels.

If you shoot Canon use the Canon software to white balance your images, then off toe Photoshop

I repeat DO NOT USE LR or Bridge to do any post on a RAW IR file.....they do not have the ability to process your cameras information....only your cameras software can do that.

I wrote an action for the switching the channels, send me a PM and I will send you the action.

Using filter

gazzman

Thanks to all that have posted - just waiting for some decent sun now!
But will def try these suggestions, and will let you know how I get on.
Once again - thank you!

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

How did you get the water blue? Did you take one shot with and one without the filter and then composite the water in or did you select the water and do some color work?

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

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The water was red in-camera shooting RAW......I had white balanced off the grass, then did a wb correction in NX2, then exported to CS6 There I flipped the red and blue channels in channel mixer. If you could have seen the sky, it would be blue as well.

This was taken with Nikon D80 a converted camera - the filters are enhanced color IR

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Very cool. I didn't know that IR filters could have such an effect. I might have to get one and play with it a bit. I like both of your images. How did you happen to figure out how to do this? Did someone show you or did you read how to do it? Sometimes I play with some of the effects in PS and then I can't remember what I did to get a great result by accident. I've got to learn how to use the history brush.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

No no no.....I have never figured anything out on my own, too lazy. I let google do the work. The website LIFE PIXEL, http://www.lifepixel.com/?gclid=CMa5gOO5s7ACFYmR7QodTyLuUw did our camera conversions....we converted two D80's. This site has a number of tutorials on which filter to buy as well as "how" to flip the channels.

badriaticopo2 Loc: Kane County, Illinois

In infrared photography, IR converted cameras are different from just using the IR filter. In IR converted cameras, you shoot in real time (fast shutter speed), can see thru your viewfinder and get dreamy colors from the resulting photograph while with IR filter you can't see a thing thru your viewfinder, will require very long exposures and resulting photograph will come out very red which you will convert to black & white. nikonshooter is using an IR converted camera which explains the presence of color (blue) in his photographs.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Just holding and looking through the filter before screwing onto the lens, would have indicated the opaqueness of it. Why did you buy it without this knowledge?

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

The first shot was with a filter (the swimming pool), the second was taken with a converted camera. You do not convert to black and white, I guess you could...not too sure why you would want too........ however, you switch the red and blue channels in post. Using a filter on a non converted camera is no different than shooting a 10 stop ND filter. For sharpness you need support as in a tripod. You frame and focus your shot, then slide in the filter. It is real time....not too sure what you meant by that. But it requires a longer exposure. Even when held on a tripod windy days can mess with your sharpness. A 2 or 3 second exposure is not uncommon. Your colors, if any, will be affected by whatever you choose to white balance . I white balance off of green grass in bright sunlight to get these colors.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Do you white balance off the grass in post or do you snap a shot of the grass and use this as your white balance calibration in camera?