I picked up a 52mm 720nm cut-off infrared filter to give infrared photography a try. This is fun stuff. The 52mm filter is something I can fit on the Canon S2 IS with adapter, Fuji e900 with adapter, or my set of manual focus Nikkor prime lenses to go on the Nikon D2Xs.

In Googling on the topic, there’s a page that comes up saying that the Fuji e900 can’t be used for infrared. I’m not sure what that meant, but here are two photos showing the same scene, both taken minutes apart with the e900, one with the IR filter on and the other as normal.

Normal view:

[photopress:norm_horiz_pond_01_pregamma_1_reinhard04_brightness__8.81_chromatic_adaptation_1_light_adaptation_0.jpg,full,pp_empty]

Infrared view:

[photopress:ir_h_pond_01_rbswap.jpg,full,pp_empty]

OK, neither of the above are the result of a single exposure. Both were done as a bracketed series of exposures imported into the Qtpfsgui HDR (high dynamic range) program, then tonemapped to produce a low dynamic range image. I was using a Raynox 0.66x wide angle accessory lens for each, and that apparently introduced softness at the corners. Additionally, I swapped the red and blue channels in the IR image to get a more appealing color scheme. I used ImageMagick for the RB channel swap operation:


convert ir_horiz_pond_01.jpg -recolor " 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 " ir_h_pond_01_rbswap.jpg


So far, it seems that getting more than monochrome-type results from IR on all three of the cameras requires setting a custom white balance. Fortunately, that is doable on all three. I just used a blank sheet of paper, but I suspect that more exploration is probably in order on that score. The Canon and Fuji are somewhat easier to use for IR photography because they can display an image based on what is received at the sensor. With the Nikon D2Xs, it does not have “live view” capability, so I can either be screwing the filter on and taking it off continually, or I can take proof pictures and see what was captured using the LCD display.

In order to get an exposure short enough for handheld IR photos, I had to run the ISO on the e900 up to 800. Even then, it was pretty long for handheld photos out at the pond in late afternoon.

Here are some results of single exposures in the front yard:

[photopress:dscf0502_ws_rbswap.jpg,thumb,pp_empty][photopress:dscf0503_ws_rbswap.jpg,thumb,pp_empty][photopress:dscf0504_ws_rbswap.jpg,thumb,pp_empty][photopress:dscf0507_ws_rbswap.jpg,thumb,pp_empty][photopress:dscf0510_ws_rbswap.jpg,thumb,pp_empty]

Viewed 188153 times by 15674 viewers