MCWK on Blogspot.com: My first attempt at Digital Infrared Photography

After reading about this in various sources on the Internet and web forums, I finally managed to get my hands on a Hoya R72 IR filter. Thus begins my experimentation into the realm of Infrared photography!

I got mine from the online store, Shashinki. Have made several purchases from them over the past couple of years, so I am happy with their service and also can vouch for their reliability.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, do read up an excellent resource on this matter at Wikipedia.

Basically, the theory is that the CCD / CMOS sensor in a DSLR is sensitive to wavelengths of light exceeding our normal human scope of vision. Nowadays, manufacturers put IR blocking filters in front of their sensor chips to filter out the IR light (usually > 600-700 nanometer wavelength). This filter seems to get better with each successive generation of camera, as my D70 is much more sensitive than my D200.

Well, my first experimental shot made on the D200 was a disaster - had to crank up the ISO to 3200 and expose to 30 seconds to get some dark, under-exposed and noisy image. When I switched over to my D70, initially I got a totally white image, due to using the same settings as my D200. Only when I throttled down on the parameters did I start to get my pseudo-colored IR images. Heh, heh, heh...!

Now, left on auto white balance, the images tend to take on a reddish cast. Taking a cue from some online advice, I preset the white balance by pointing my camera at a green bush. Note that I still had to dial in around - 1 EV to prevent the burnt out highlights.

I took off late one morning, when the sun was already high in the sky. Usually avoided by photographers as the angle of sunlight would cast ugly shadows, I chose to go out during this time as this meant there was an ample amount of light (especially infrared light) to light the scene.

I stopped first at the Bukit Beruang hill, a popular place for exercising (especially useful for training to climb Mt Kinabalu). Then went to the man-made lake / recreation park at Taman Tasik Utama. Finally on my way home, stopped by for a snap of the MITC mosque.

Upon getting home, I fired up GIMP and did some basic post processing. Unfortunately, I discovered that my lens of choice (Tamron 17-50 F2.8) was prone to what was known as "hot spot" in the center of the frame, leading to some overexposure and color shift in the central circular area. Nothing much could be done, so I take this as a lesson to try out the lens first before going off ona shooting spree.

My images were noisy, as I set my camera ISO to 1600 - didn't have a tripod, so hand-held shots would have been blurred due to camera shake.

Well, I will take the next step to send my D70 for modification to remove the IR blocking filter and replace it with an IR pass filter. With this, my D70 will be dedicated for IR, leaving my other DSLR's for normal photography.

Hope to post more photos once the modifications are done. Meanwhile, view some of my photos below and the rest in my gallery over HERE.