IR for begginers?

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shanko1984

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Chris
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Hi, i am very new too photography and spent the last couple of months learing the basics with my new camera, a panasonic fz45.. I recently purchased a 950nm Ir lens on a whim after seeing some fantastic photos online and thought id have an experiment.
I have been trying too follow people advice on youtube or other site, but setting up too the settings they have,
for example some people say they have it on F8 with a shutter speed of 1 sec and around 400 iso in manual focus but at those setting iv pretty much got just black pictures, so i experimented from there.

Best i have looks like a under exposed grainy black and white, im still waiting for a tri pod and not sure about the manual focus on this camera to be honest.

But basically i am wondering if there is anything major i am missing, like do i need sunny day conditions rather than dull and over cast, what should my white balance be set too (will this effect my image) any information on this subject with be greatfully recieved especially from users of the same camera who have got good results.

thankyou very much

chris
 
You'll need to experiment to find a combination of settings that work for your camera, however you'll probably find that you'll need an exposure time of between 15-30 (maybe even considerably longer) seconds before you'll get anythong approching a usable pic
 
Ok ill keep experimenting, though im now not sure if my camera can produce such images as i was reading a post on heres ant the gentleman was talking about exposing for 900s and well max i can get is 60 secs on my camera, i was exposing for 30 seconds at one point although i thought in b/w the folliage would turn white and it seemed too stay drak in the grainy mess of a picture that i got back lol,

thanks for the advice
 
Infrared is difficult with digital, because they have strong IR and UV filters over the sensor to prevent it!

You can get some passable results with some cameras with some filters (it varies) but the only way to do it properly is to have the camera converted, ie the IR filter removed.

These people will do it http://www.advancedcameraservices.co.uk/ Not cheap!
 
30 Seconds at F8 with ISO 100 is about standard for IR. That's still 8 seconds at ISO 400 though.

I'd suggest 950nm Might be too strong a filter for an unconverted camera, I use a 720nm one.

It may not be obvious but you can only do IR photography with IR light, you can't do it indoors unless you use powerful heatlamps as teh lightsource. Shooting on dark cloudy days is possible but exposure times are considerably longer. I have an F8 image at ISO 400 with a shutter speed of 60 seconds taken just after sundown on a cloudy day in my IR collection.
 
I had a dabble in the summer... when the light is very harsh for normal photography, it's perfect for IR.

My first attempt below on my Nikon D40X with a Hoya R72, 30 seconds at f8 ISO100. Taken mid afternoon on July 1st, how it looks so much like scenes from a week or two ago during the freeze :lol:

I can't wait until I can do some more when the sun is high again :)


4863051516_c3ac02c937_z.jpg
 
Biker Bandit said:
I had a dabble in the summer... when the light is very harsh for normal photography, it's perfect for IR.

My first attempt below on my Nikon D40X with a Hoya R72, 30 seconds at f8 ISO100. Taken mid afternoon on July 1st, how it looks so much like scenes from a week or two ago during the freeze :lol:

I can't wait until I can do some more when the sun is high again :)


4863051516_c3ac02c937_z.jpg
Click to expand...

That's a superb first attempt.

Some advice and tuition is here...
http://www.lifepixel.com/

Some inspiration here (courtesy of Mia Lewis)...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mialewis/collections/72157605794608118/

Rgds
 
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