Infra Red

[Dougie]

Does anyone in our midst know how to change an image from either mono or colour to infra-red? I've got a couple of images that I've been lmucking about with, but to no avail. Advice most welcome 
       Cheerz

[Stuart R]

Hi Dougie

I'm no expert on this, but , I don't think it can be done. However, I'm happy to be corrected. The real expert on all things IR is Willie who is now able to take cracking IR shots with a camera he has (and the shots are cracking - I've seen them). However, he is on holiday just now (probably taking more cracking IR shots) but I am sure he can point you in the right direction when he gets back.

Cheers

Stuart

[Willie]

Hi Dougie,

Yes, Stuart is correct - you cannot get a true InfraRed conversion from a (visible light) Colour or Black and White photo, as it is a different section of the light spectrum, with different properties. But you can simulate one. A quick method is to go to the B&W filter in Photoshop CS3 - Image - Adjustments - Black and White, then go to  - Preset - Infrared, and it will do a fairly good job.

Another method can be found in the folowing Photoshop Tutorial - Infrared Photo Effect
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/infrared-1.php

Personally, I really like the surreal look that you get from Infrared Photography. Printed properly it has a real art like quality that would look good on any wall. Perhaps we should have another section in the forum to cover this topic.

Hope this helps,

Willie

[Dougie]

Cheers Willie, I'll give that a try and let you know if I'm a fraction as good as you 

[Steve]

 

There was an article in EOS Magazine (April - June 2008) on this topic. In the article it gives a very quick guide to simulating IR effects in Photoshop. Seems easy enough  but gives the same link as Willie supplied.

This monochrome competition is going to be very interesting!!!

Steve

[Robertthesnapper]

Does anyone really know the best strenth of filter to use for infra red photograph a 720nm or a 950nm?

Or will that depend on if its for Digital or monochrome?

oh my head.lol

[Willie]

Hi Robert,

Good Question! The most common IR filter is the R72 which has a cutoff of 720nm (nanometers). I feel that this still allows some of the visible light to come through. You can still see a little bit of an image through it, even though it is quite a dark filter. I use an 850nm cutoff filter and it looks completely black. So this seems to block all the visible light. I would say it is even more so for the 950nm cutoff filter. The part of the spectrum that we capture is the near infrared, so I felt that the 850nm filter was more towards the true infrared than the 720nm filter.

There is a lot of photographers who combine a little of the visible spectrum with the Infrared (with the R72 filter), and convert this to a blue colour in Photoshop, so that the clear part of the sky still has a little blue in it instead of the black that you get from true Infrared. This also contrasts with the white clouds and for some, can make a nice effect. This "Infrared mix" is quite popular, but to me, the best is a true Infrared image reduced to a monochrome black and white, as the mix type can sometimes look a bit false. So it all comes down to a matter of taste. Do you want to have blue, black and white, or just black and white.

Check out IR/UK & Ireland on flickr http://www.flickr.com/groups/infrareduk/pool/ to see examples of both.

Best - Willie

[Robertthesnapper]

Thanks for that Willie from what i see the cutoff 720nm is the one for me lol

Robert