Infrared landscape

Lake in the woods

Infrared photography i so cool! I´ve been adimiring beautiful shots in different Flickrgroups, most of them beeing created by semi-pros or really advanced amateurs. Many photographers swear by the IR-modified camera. To my delight, there is no need to modify your camera for IR-photography. All you need is a filter that you put in front of your lens. I bought my filter on eBay for 12 euros (including postage).

There are obviously certain challenges by using this specific method for IR-photography, the few I found most challenging were difficulties in composing, focusing and the long exposure. Composing the photo is not possible through the viewfinder when the IR-filter is in front of the lens. I solved this by using a tripod and locking the camera in the position that I wanted. Focusing is a problem. I haven't figured out why, but the image is no longer sharp after screwing on the filter, and this has nothing to do with clumsy fingers fidgeting with the focusring. I solved the focusproblem by trial-and-error and manually focusing according to the image on the display. The long exposure is not really a problem, not if you have a tripod, the method of finding the correct exposure thorugh trial-and-error was also used here. One tip I read on one of the many photo-mags writing on the subject is that when shooting RAW, if possible shoot RAW + jpeg, and set the camera to black and white. This way you get a feeling for what the photo is going to look like later.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8 fitted with an IR INfrared Pass 950nm standard filter , ISO 400, 15 sec at f/4. PP includes ACR and a few photoshop techniques.