I almost missed this one even though I was thinking about it last night.  That is what I get for thinking about it and not actually acting on it!  Stuff like that happens to me all the time!

This week’s photo is from a new set of experiments in IR photography.  I talked about how digital IR photo worked in a previous Foto Friday post.  Well, being back at camp for the summer means that I have access to an IR camera for the summer again, so I will be doing more experimenting!

The Home Acres Farm on Rt. 113 in Stow, ME (or close to Stow)

This image was captured a little before sunset during “golden hour” before going out moosing.  I inverted the red and blue channels to make the sky blue and get the cool IR effect in the trees.  The clouds came out pretty cool as well.  Shooting in IR is very interesting and I feel like it really opens up a completely different world of creative imaging.  It is so interesting to be able to visualize that which we can’t see!

I have a bunch more IR photos already and I plan to get them up on my website, IceWolf Photography, this weekend.  They are fun to look it in a bigger scale than this one.  I just need to sit down and do the upload.  I will let you know when that happens.

For now, enjoy this one, and as always, comments, questions, and critiques are always welcome!

infrared – |ˌinfrəˈred|  (adj): having a wavelength just greater than that of the red end of the visible light spectrum but less than that of microwaves. Infrared radiation has a wavelength from about 800 nm to 1 mm, and is emitted particularly by heated objects.

Infrared (IR) photography is not a new photography technique, however the advent of the digital camera has made it a much easier technique to get into.  All the imaging sensors in digital cameras are capable of collecting light from well beyond the visible spectrum which includes the infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths.  Because normally we don’t want to capture the non-visible light, digital cameras come with a “hot-mirror” installed over the imaging sensor.  This mirror has a dichroic coating that allows only visible light to pass through and reflects all of the non-visible light.

Relatively recently people have started to modify digital cameras by replacing or even removing the hot-mirror so that they can capture images outside the range of visible light.  The most common modification is to place a new dichroic filter over the sensor that only allows infrared light to pass through and maybe a little bit of visible light at that end of the spectrum.  If you are comfortable taking apart your camera you can buy a kit, but for not that much more money there are companies that will do the modification for you.

Why would we want to photograph light that we normally can’t see?  Well, it is just another way to look at the world and it can produce some very striking images.  With that, I gave you my photo of the week:

Captured using a modified Nikon D70 on the banks of the Saco River in Maine.

As you can see, the colors are very different than what you normally see.  The most odd is probably the sky, which comes out orange.  IR images also make beautiful black and white images which you can do right in your favorite photo editor.  It certainly gives you quite a different perspective on the world.

This photo was taken lat summer with a Nikon D70 that had been modified for IR.  I borrowed the camera for a few days from the staff photographer at camp to play around with it.  Hopefully I will get the chance to do more this coming summer.  I would love to have one of my old cameras converted, but right now I could use the money for other things.

As always, comments and critiques are welcome and encouraged.