Infra Red Filters.

[TommoR]

Morning All,

Rather boring day in the office last week and searching through the usual websites at what lenses I can’t afford and found an Infra Red filter. Having always like the idea of giving this a go I brought on an impulse!

So can someone suggest the best way to use them i.e. camera settings etc. Is it a case of getting everything right and compose the shot. Whack on the filter, up the exposure and away I go or have I got this completely wrong???

Thanks in Advance

Tom

[andreasphotography]

Depends on your camera you know they wont work on a Nikon, dont you how ever hard you try, simple because the sensor is such wont get techy here but basically all IR is blocked so even with a filter you wont get IR shots

IR filters are really made for film cameras not digital, the only way to get a good IR shot is to actually pay the £300 and have an old DSLR converted just for IR

by all means try the filter in RAW and you will see what i mean , unless you have the full version of CS3 or above you wont achieve that true infa red look

if the IR filter has worked at all when you open the image it should be red or blue most are bluish

you really will need to over expose alot on a DSLR again depending on the make

[PaulMontgomery]

Woohhaa - where did you get those pearls of 'wisdom' from?

The old D70 is one of the most IR sensitive cameras going and the D700 is pretty good too.
If you want the 'false colour' look of an IR image then you need to do channel swapping (swap red for blue) GIMP can do this for free. Most other software packages will allow you to produce a half-way decent B&W image.
If the IR image is blue before processing, there's something seriously wrong. IR images are produced by cutting off pretty much everything in the visible spectrum except a bit of red.

The tips I've learned from trial and error are:
A dedicated converted camera is the best solution, but filters on un-converted cameras can be good.
Up the ISO as far as you can before noise becomes an issue.
If you've got an eye-piece shutter close it to stop the exposure meter getting confused.
You may well need to apply exposure compensation - try it and see.
Frame the picture without the filter and then put the filter in place - you'll see naff all with the filter on.

Erm - I think that's it for the moment, no doubt I'll think of more...

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by andreasphotography

Depends on your camera you know they wont work on a Nikon, dont you how ever hard you try, simple because the sensor is such wont get techy here but basically all IR is blocked so even with a filter you wont get IR shots

IR filters are really made for film cameras not digital, the only way to get a good IR shot is to actually pay the £300 and have an old DSLR converted just for IR

Nope. As Paul has already made clear thats just simply not true. All digital sensors are sensitive to IR wavelengths.

Tom, I would suggest composing, focusing and metering your scene before you put the filter on (obviously). If it was me I would shoot in manual mode and add 4 stops of shutter speed and see what comes out. Check the histogram and work from there. It's trial and error.

[TommoR]

Thanks for the help guys.

Had a little play with it yesterday and was quite please with some of the results. definatly going to use it in anger at somepoint. For reference I have a sony A300 and works fine.

Originally Posted by chris-p

It's trial and error.

Found this out!

Tom.

[Robster]

Has anyone got any idea how a infra red filter would work with a canon eos 450D!
I fancy a play with IR photography.
Thanks TommoR for the post you have saved me a job

[chris-p]

It should be the same as on any camera. Just screw it onto the lens and shoot.

[Robster]

Well I had been given mixed reports on how it would work, I guess I should just buy a filter and give it a blast and make my own idea about.
Thanks

[TommoR]

This is where I got mine from.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I think they have different filter thread sizes. £12 with free P&P and it came quite quickly even during a postal strike!!!

[PaulMontgomery]

Another top tip I learned from flickr. If you want to, you can compose with the filter on by using live view.