Infrared Black & White Photography
Black & White Infrared Photography
What is it and what makes it so exciting? Well, let’s begin with a little lesson in history. Let’s go back to the prehistoric days of something called film.
Back in 1996 I wrote and self published a book called “Adventures in Infrared”. I was able to learn how to use it correctly and incorporate it in my portrait and wedding business. I had been very fortunate also in getting great results in print competition with the PPA (Professional Photographers of America” and WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International).
Back in those days my favorite format and B&W infrared film was Kodak High Speed B&W Infrared 35mm film. Konica also made an infrared 120 film that I was able to use in my Hasselblads, but I preferred Kodak’s 35mm. It would record higher into the infrared regime giving more of a dramatic effect.
At the time there wasn't’t too much available on B&W infrared film, so I wrote Eastman Kodak for information and they were gracious enough to send me all the information they could. I also asked expert print maker Jonathan Penney to tell me all he knew about the film. I’m not real technical but I learned enough about the film and how to get great results with this film.
Infrared Photography allows you to photograph images that are formed by infrared radiation. Therefore, you are able to photograph your subjects in scenes that are beyond the upper limit of the visible band. The range of wavelengths that covers the visible spectrum is from about 400 nanometers to about 700 nanometers. Nanometers (nm) is used as a measurement of the wavelength. It is one millionth of a millimeter.
According to Kodak, the longest wavelength of radiation recorded by photography is around 1350 nm. The infrared photography that I'm concerned with, such as when I used Kodak's 35mm High Speed Black & White Infrared film, can record in the wavelength region of 700 to about 900 nm. This is what gives us that romantic, dreamy appearance that we get in black & white
The Look of Infrared Photography.
Certain objects in a scene, such as foliage and grass, will reflect much of the infrared. Although, they absorb much of the visible light, they take on a glowing, radiating quality in an infrared photograph. The luminous appearance is even more apparent and dramatic when the scene is touched by sunlight.
Today we can get similar results using our digital cameras. There are two different ways I have done B&W infrared photography with a digital camera. The first way was to set the camera to record black & white and put a filter over the lens. Instead of putting a 25A red filter in front of the lens, as in the film days, you would use a Wratten filter which is nearly opaque.
The only problem is that this filter blocks just about all of the visible light. Therefore, you are going to have to use a tripod since your exposures are going to be quite long. The other way which I’m doing now, is to use a converted digital camera to capture infrared only. There are people who specialize in this and will do the conversion for you. Although, I’ve heard of some photographers successfully accomplishing this, I just prefer to let someone who specializes in this perform the operation.
Basically what has to be done is to remove the infrared blocking filter and replace it with a visible light blocking filter. Once this is done the camera only records in B&W infrared. There is one more option, and that is to purchase a special camera such as what Fujifilm offers in their UVIR line. By varying the filtration, you can take normal, UV or Infrared photos.
Fine Tune Your Image
Once the IF image is captured, I always fine tune and enhance the finished image. Generally, the first thing I do is get rid of the color cast that I get in my images. I have certain actions and filters that I use, such as Nic Color Effects Pro and others.
Since B&W infrared film had a grainy quality to it, you can also add grain either by way of a grain from the texture menu or you can even add noise from the noise submenu in photoshop. Sometimes I’ll even soften it and give it a nice glowing quality. Here is where you can tweak it to come up with your own style and signature look that will separate you from the competition.
To See More on B&W Infrared Photography Watch the Video Below
