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Self Critique
I recently stepped into the world of BW Infrared Photography. I have a Nikon D750 that was collecting dust so I sent it to Lifepixel to convert to 830nm infrared. I’ve had it back about 6 weeks now and I’ve made fair progress understanding how to make a barely acceptable IR photo. Exposure is the current mystery I’m faced with. If you notice the two trees near the bottom of my image you will see leaves that are grayed out with zero detail. Little more than a blob of gray. But the difficulty is what you see on the back of the camera is not what you will see when you download the file to ACR and the histogram apparently does not apply to infrared light…or so I’m told. I don’t believe the grayed out leaves are overexposed. They are leaves at the interior of the tree and in shadow to some degree. It’s not a result of processing. It was there as soon as I put the image in the RAW converter. It’s present in every image that has bright leaves, not grass or any other highlight…just leaves. If I take a photo on an overcast day there are no grayed out areas but the image doesn’t look like an infrared just a low contrast BW and that’s not what I’m looking for. This morning in my search for answers I went to the Kolarivision website and looked at their sample photos of the kind of images you can expect with this filter and to my surprise there they were… the gray blobs were even present in the images they were using to sell their 850nm infrared filter. I really don’t know what to think at this point. If you’ve stayed with me for this long winded explanation thank you I appreciate it. I know there are some experienced and skilled IR photographers out there who have the answers…what are your thoughts?
Creative direction
What drew me to Infrared Photography were the high contrast BW images with brilliant white foliage, dark shadows and mid-tones with that cool IR glow that I was seeing other photographers produce. If you haven’t seen those you should take a look. It’s really captivating imagery IMO. Lifepixel has a great gallery on their website. That’s what I want to do and that’s what I was trying to do with this scene.
Specific Feedback
What is causing these gray areas and what can I do about it?
Technical Details
-Nikon D750 converted to 830nm infrared
-Nikon 24-120mm f4
-55mm@ f16
-1/50 sec
-ISO 500
Description
I pretty much covered this in my opening statement.
Critique Template
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Bruce, I’m not an expert by any means but I take infrared shots fairly often and I’ll share some thoughts.
The trees at the bottom of your image look about like I would expect trees to look with that background and that kind of light. When you have a tree full of green leaves against a background of grass in bright sunlight, what’s called the Wood Effect is going to give you very bright tones. You say that you don’t think the images are overexposed. Are you sure you’re not clipping any of the color channels? That might account for the lack of detail.
I don’t know how you’re determining the exposure. I suggest using manual mode and setting the exposure in Live View or whatever Nikon calls the equivalent. Focusing manually in Live View is also the only way I know to get the image sharply focused unless you’re shooting at the focal length the camera was calibrated to, which I think is usually 50mm.
You also need to use a custom white balance for infrared. The company that did my conversion set the white balance when they did the conversion and I don’t change it.
@Don_Peters I can’t remeber the last time I didn’t expose manually in live view. No channels are clipping. My camera has a universal calibration so I can use AF. Custom white balance is not required for conversions 830nm and above because they filter out all visible or colored light. I did custom white balance at first then stopped and my images now come out of the camera pure magenta. Once I convert to BW in RAW they look exactly the same. The custom white balanced images may be slightly brighter. I appreciate your input and I hope I didn’t sound argumentative. I was just stating what I’ve considered so far. Thanks.
Yes, frustrating, but with some practice you can sometimes make the gray areas an interesting feature of an image. But probably more successful with larger-in-the-frame subjects than a grand landscape.
WB and exposure are separate issues. I have their “Super Color” filter that lets in a little visible light, and the image on the back of the camera is a JPEG using the factory-calibrated WB. (Or if I have changed it, it would be using whatever I set.) That balance can’t be achieved in LR/ACR and I have to resort to either Canon’s raw conversion software or a custom WB I made with something that escapes my mind just now.
Autoexposure (at least for my conversion) varies hugely with what’s in the frame – as you know, blue sky records very dark and greens very bright. To save frustration I shoot exposure brackets of 5 stops and just keep the best.
Spring was last week and I’m already frustrated with the summer harsh light. I should haul out the IR body.
@Diane_Miller that all makes good sense. One thing I really like about IR is when morning light gets harsh I can change gears a pull out the IR camera. I used to go home when it got harsh. Bracketing a few shots is a good idea. It seems IR is a game of extremes. Brilliant highlights and black shadows. I’ve yet to find a middle ground that appeals to my eye.
Interesting discussion. I have zero experience with IR, so I’ll just learn over your shoulder Bruce. I do like the diagonal flow of the ravine through the image here. I also find it interesting how IR renders the sky so dark, which is a good contrast to the blaze below.
@John_Williams yeah it’s been a lot of fun having two cameras along for different purposes and producing such different pictures. I used to pack it up when the sun came out but now I can stay out all day in any weather…I’m like the post office
Yes the skies can be very cool especially when you get a mix of blue and clouds. The deeper the blue the darker the sky will be. Green grass and leaves are brilliant in full sun so as you can see the contrasts can be jarring. I’m finding it has more limitations than the visible spectrum but once you learn the characteristics of infrared light pertaining to photography it can produce images that are otherworldly, to use a cliche’.
I wish I could help you out Bruce but I know exactly nothing about IR photography. You’ve got me curious…how does one expose properly if the histogram is rendered useless? There must be a system that can get you close??? It does seem like a lot of the image is blown out but is it really. Now I don’t know. I’m curious what the histogram did tell you? It would seem that with no clouds in the sky and what appears to be relatively harsh light that shooting at 1/50th of a second is too slow particularly since your ISO was at 500 but I don’t actually know what time of day this was shot at.
Again, I know nothing about IR photography but I would do some research so that at the very least you are able to expose correctly in the future. Wish I could help. I did find this short article by a company who performs camera conversions:
I do like the diagonal flow of the ravine through the image here. I also find it interesting how IR renders the sky so dark, which is a good contrast to the blaze below.