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Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in 850nm Infrared, Montecio, California
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I've been shooting for fun in infrared quite a bit lately. The camera I use has been converted to shoot at 590nm and beyond, allowing for some interesting effects with color (as seen in previous posts). The color has been fun to play with, but it does leave an aftertaste. My love affair with infrared began as black and white, and that's where it stays.
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| Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in 850nm Infrared, Montecio, California |
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| Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in 850nm Infrared, Montecio, California |
At 590nm, there is still some visible (therefore, color) information being recorded. By 720nm, (another common filtering point), nothing but a tiny bit of red remains. Human vision varies, as does the definition of visible light, but "red" ends somewhere around 700-750nm. 850nm is pretty much invisible to the human eye. This is where I prefer to work. You are able to visualize something that is not technically visible.
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| Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in 850nm Infrared, Montecio, California |
Using color filters to alter the appearance on film is a common technique. Ansel Adams made his famous dark skies by using some variation of a red or orange filter. Shooting deep into infrared takes that same idea a bit further, but here, visible colors do not automatically dictate how an object will render in infrared.
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| Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in 850nm Infrared, Montecio, California |
Skies typically go very dark, but not necessarily all blues. Regardless of color, water also typically goes dark, since it readily absorbs infrared (and the heat associated with it). Plant foliage is pretty good about reflecting infrared and preventing itself from heating too much from IR energy. This is what gives plants the bright white canopies known as the "Wood Effect," named after the father of infrared photography, Robert W. Wood (1868-1955).
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This barn appears to have IR reflecting "heat shield" film on it. Near Santa Maria, CA
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Even though one can learn to predict how a subject is likely to behave in infrared, surprises still happen. For example, the window in the photo of the barn must have the "heat shield" type tinting on it. Despite its styling, it is relatively new construction and the owners have clearly done work to keep it efficient. As a result, what appeared to be a normal, darker window to the eye, brightly recorded all the infrared it was reflecting.
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The Garey Store showing more typical window behavior in IR. Garey, California
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America. Garey, California. Population: 72
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What I have grown to also love is how infrared also wraps more deeply into shadow areas - or at least that's how the sensor reads it. The information is recorded more shallowly in the histogram, but when stretched out to the more typical contrast levels, the shadow information remains plentiful.
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Cabbage fields in Infrared, near Santa Maria, California
 | | Nothing runs like a Deere. |
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I am still fine tuning processing techniques to get the look I want out of the camera, but I've been very happy with the results so far. My goal is to start making platinum/palladium prints of this work, using those detailed shadows in the long tonal range of the medium.
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Au Bon Climat Vineyards, Santa Maria, California
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Au Bon Climat's Chardonnay vineyards in 850nm Infrared, Santa Maria, California.
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