Photo Plus - UK (2019-09)

52 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

THE MISSION

How to capture and

convert IR images

Time needed

One hour

Skill level

Intermediate

Kit needed

• Standard zoom


• Infrared filter


• Tripod

Inspirational

infrared imagery

Take your black-and-white landscapes to a new level with

Peter Travers and his handy infrared photography cheap cheats

01 SHOOT FOR IR
Time your shots and position so trees and
grassy foregrounds are well lit by the sun
and the sky is blue with white clouds.
Scenes with contrasting elements work
best for IR so you have very bright and
very dark areas in B&W IR conversions.

02 CANON DSLR, LENS & IR FILTER

We’ve used a Canon 5D Mark IV with an EF

24-70mm lens to capture our scene. We’re

using this budget (£20 on eBay) Zomei

82mm size IR filter. As these dark filters

block so much light, like an ND filter, you’ll

need a very long exposure even in daylight.

03 CAMERA SETUP

Also block your eyepiece with the cover on

your strap to avoid light leaking in. You’ll

also need to use a tripod for sharp shots.

We shot in Bulb mode at f/5.6, ISO3200

and 3 mins 30 secs! We found our IR filter

created impressive results (see above).

STEP BY STEP SHOOT IT! PHOTOSHOP IT!

Discover different ways to capture IR images and how to convert them

lack and white

conversions can

transform your colour

landscape photos, but

with infrared (IR) imagery,

the tonality of the scene

completely changes, giving

you both a unique way to

capture landscapes – taking

your mono photography to

the next level.

To capture the best IR

landscape photos, look for scenes

that have a contrast between

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light; water and blue skies absorb

IR light and therefore appear

darker in images. While greenery

like grass, leafy trees and clouds

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Digital camera sensors are

sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) light

and IR light as well as the visible

wavelengths of light. Because of

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block both ultraviolet and infrared

light. So what’s the solution?

You can pay to convert an old

camera body to IR (see box on the

left), but why not use a cheap IR

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(between £49-149 depending on

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to still be very impressive.

Or you can fake the IR B&W

look in Photoshop! Using the

technique in the steps below right,

you can mimic the tones of

infrared by boosting the foliage

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Raw’s sliders, and then the

Black & White adjustments and

IR presets in the

Photoshop workspace.

Although this process

won’t give you a 100% true

representation of how the scene

would look if you’d shot it with an

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get decent results.

B

PROJECT 2

VIDEO ALSO ONLINE

http://bit.ly/pp_156_2

COLOUR^

IR^ FILTER^

CONVERT OLD

CANONS TO IR

Many landscape pros get
an old Canon DSLR body
converted specifically for
IR. From around £310,
companies such as
advancedcamera
services.co.uk will
remove the infrared filter
inside your camera so
that the sensor can now
see infrared light, and
replaces it with a filter
that blocks visible light,
so your camera sensor
can only capture infrared
light instead.

VIEW^ TH

E^ VIDEO