Digital SLR Photography - UK (2019-07)

Recordingscenesusing infrared light requires
either a fully-converted camera or use of an
infrared filter on the lens. The former involves
removing your camera’s infrared filter from the
sensor, permanently – you can then use your
camera, functioning as normal, but it will now
record infrared light. Using an IR filter is a more
temporary solution – you simply screw the
filter onto the front of your lens and it allows
infrared light to reach the sensor. The
downside is that TTL metering struggles, and
exposure times are much longer. With either
method, the images recorded give the world
an unusual, almost alien quality. Blue skies and
water are rendered inky dark tones, whereas
foliage in direct sunlight is bright white. Infrared
images aren’t black & white straight out of the
camera – they’re often captured in red and
pinkish hues (depending on your White
Balance settings) and while ‘false’ colour
conversions are one option for processing IR
images, many photographers choose to opt
for the rich tonality of black & white – infrared
images are already abstract in their nature, and
monochrome conversions simply add to this.

RADOS

LAW

MAC

IEJE

WSK

I/SH

UTTERST

OCK

INFRARED

ROSS

HODD

INO

T T

GR ADUATEDNDFILT E R S :Thesefiltersfade

fromcompletelycleartowhateverstrengthof

filtrationyouchooseandareusedtoreducethe

exposureofonepartofanimagewhilstleaving

anotherpartunaffected.Theirmostcommonuse

is toreducethebrightnessoftheskytobalance

betterwiththelandin a landscapeimage.Thetype

oftransitionbetweenfilteredandunfilteredpartsis

referredtoas‘hard’or‘soft’.HardNDgradshavea

suddentransition,andsuitsceneswitha solid,

uninterruptedhorizon(suchasat thecoast),

whereassoftNDgradsboasta moregradual

transition.Manylandscapephotographerswill

carrya selectionofgradswiththem,butmost

commonlyusedare0.6ND(twostop)and0.9ND

(threestop)strengths.

CIRCULARPOLARISINGFILT E R :If you’re

onlygoingtotakeonefilterwithyoutoshoot

landscapesthenmakeit a circularpolarisingfilter

(orCPLasthey’recommonlyknown).TheCPLis

theonetypeoffilterwhoseeffectscan’tbe

replicatedduringpost-processing.Rotatedtothe

correctorientation,it willdeepenblueskies,

makingcloudsstandout,andwillcutthrough

reflectionsin thesurfaceofwater,aswellas

reduceglarefromsurfacessuchaswetrocksand

foliage.Itseffectsareequallyaspronouncedin

black& whitephotographyastheyarein colour,

sodon’tleavehomewithoutit.

NDFILT E R S :WhereNDgradfiltersarehalf

filteredandhalfclear,NDfiltersofferuniform

filtrationacrosstheentirefilter.They’reusedto

reducetheamountoflightreachingthesensor

• in landscapephotographythisis primarilyto
  extendexposuretimesandcapturemotion.
  Effectscanrangefroma subtleblurringofmoving
  componentsin theland,suchascloudsand
  water,whenusingone,twoorthree-stopNDs,
  rightuptoa completeblurringofalltexturein
  waterandlongstreaksin thecloudsusingmore
  extremesix,tenandeven15-stopNDs!

USING LANDSCAPE FILTERS

July 2019 Digital SLR Photography 57