Welcome to the wacky world of Infrared Photography :)

Welcome to the wacky world of Infrared Photography :)

A while back I rented a camera that allowed me to try out some Infrared Photography, and I was intrigued enough to look into getting a fully converted camera of my own… which I have finally done 🙂 Trees and foliage look white, water looks black (as one reflects IR and the other doesn’t) and though there’s not a lot of foliage yet, I had fun giving it a first real try …

I got a used (but in very good shape) Sony A7ii, an older version of the full-frame Sony system that I use, that has been converted to full-spectrum by LifePixel. This camera will work with all my lenses, it’s just a little slower and doesn’t have some of the auto-focus bells and whistles that my newer cameras have, but my IR photography will probably be mostly landscapes so that stuff is not needed.

I went with a full-spectrum conversion so I can do different types of IR photography by just adding filters to any of my existing lenses, I got a 590nm, a 720nm, and an 830nm, all in an 82mm size, so with step-up rings they will fit any of my lenses, but all of these pictures were taken with the 720nm filter on my Sony 16-35mm f/4 as I wanted to try things out with a good “base” lens that I know well before I try it with some of my more esoteric vintage glass 😉

All digital cameras can see the full spectrum of light, from UV, through visible, to IR, but camera manufacturers put in a filter that blocks the IR light. This camera has had that filter removed, so it can take pictures of the full spectrum with no filters, or if a filter that blocks the visible light is used it can take pictures of just the IR light, or, with the right filter a combination. The LifePixel site has a really good introduction here if you’re interested, or just Google “Infrared Photography”.

All IR photographs are really “false-color” as it’s a spectrum of light we can’t see so it can’t have color for us, but with some creative editing these pictures don’t have to be just black and white, as you can see here. I’m just dipping my toes into this world, but I’m looking forward to diving deeper!


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