Infrared Camera Conversion

[Mike Farley]

At my "Photo 365" talk the other evening, a number of people asked me about infrared photography. These days I usually shoot with a modified camera and there are a couple of historic posts which I put on the forum which give some more information.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=243&p=1247&hilit=infrared#p1247

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=869&p=4177&hilit=infrared#p4172

Anyone who wishes to experiment before making a significant outlay and whose camera has live view can buy an infrared filter to mount on their lens. Once attached, it will not be possible to see through the viewfinder, but there will be something on the rear screen. The camera's sensor has an infrared blocking filter in front of it and you have attached a filter which does not pass visible light, so not many photons will be making it through to the sensor. You will have to up the ISO to get anything and even then you will probably find that a tripod will be necessary as exposure times will exceed those which can be handheld.

The most common IR filter is in the 720 nm region, which is just above where the visible spectrum finishes at the red end of the scale. Larger filters can be quite expensive, but places like eBay have a range of prices. If you have a 50 mm standard lens, filter sizes tend to be on the small side and the lens is usefully fast, so that could be a good place to start.

[Mike Farley]

Vanguard has included an article about IR photography 0n its blog and there is an accompanying freely downloadable e-book which, on a quick read through, covers much of what you need to know. Note that e-mail registration is required to obtain the book.

http://blog.vanguardworld.co.uk/a-guide ... roduction/

http://blog.vanguardworld.co.uk/free-e-book-1-download/