I've been looking at IR again after a bit of a break. Walking past my local church I noticed a little bit of ivy has grown over some stones I've shot before - in fact, in 2003 I won a magazine competition with one shot on the Optio 430RS - the prize was to have your picture printed without being paid :-)

For this I wedged my gel IR filter inside the lens hood of the DFA 21 ltd.
I usually do a filter-less version which would tell me what the difference in exposure is - this time I wasn't thinking :-( Based on "sunny 16" I would guess 1/100th @ f/11 so roughly 1/400th at the f/5.6 I used. With the camera's IR blocker and the IR only filter in place working to let no light through this was 20 seconds at f/5.6 ISO 100 (about 13 stops loss of light) That makes for a noisy live view and difficulty focusing perfectly, so I typically won't use the widest aperture. The text on the grave stone on the right edge was perfectly legible and I applied a little blur round the edges - although it was someone who died in 1904 it still doesn't feel right to include his name.

The 21 was too wide, and thanks to modern coatings is prone to hotspots with IR (a wider aperture might help a little bit, so might a better filter arrangement but one to fit the DFA 21 is expensive) when I cropped hotspots out I had the image I wanted it's about half the width and half the height but that's OK. I might have more tries with this using some other lenses (Lens Hotspot Database ? Kolari Vision reckons the 43 is good so when it gets back from repair I'll probably try with that and/or my 1980s Tokina 28mm).


Comments welcome

[angkymac]

Very interesting experimentation you are doing--and way beyond what I know how to understand.
I do like the "inverted" sort of luminance that IR gives on foliage. I tried it once (with IR film), but couldn't understand it well enough to make it work.
Glad to see the experimentation and your posting of it--encouraging to me to see this kind of "stepping out of the box"--if I may.
Certainly is an interesting take on a graveyard, what is often shot in a somber, lower key image sort of scene.
Angky

[James O'Neill]

Very interesting experimentation you are doing--and way beyond what I know how to understand.
I do like the "inverted" sort of luminance that IR gives on foliage. I tried it once (with IR film), but couldn't understand it well enough to make it work.
Glad to see the experimentation and your posting of it--encouraging to me to see this kind of "stepping out of the box"--if I may.
Certainly is an interesting take on a graveyard, what is often shot in a somber, lower key image sort of scene.
Angky

Thank you. The nice thing with digital is we can experiment it only takes a filter and a little patience to try, for this I knew I would rest the camera on a wall so I didn't even need my tripod. I have always found that I like what stone work does with IR, and foliage has his tendency to go white - it's called the Wood effect after the physicist who found it - so for something like this mix foliage and stone and that's the start of a picture. I hadn't really thought that normally we would make a graveyard dark and this a more high-key treatment than usual!

[ToddK]

As Angky said, this is a very interesting image, and your write up is very informative. It has a similar look that would come from a soft lens, and I wonder if the gel filter created that effect in addition to the IR. I really like the dreaminess of it.

[James O'Neill]

As Angky said, this is a very interesting image, and your write up is very informative. It has a similar look that would come from a soft lens, and I wonder if the gel filter created that effect in addition to the IR. I really like the dreaminess of it.

Thanks, there is a slightly soft & dreamy effect with some IR - even going back to film - with the old Kodak HIE film I used a deep red filter which meant I could focus and compose through the lens. I will probably try a glass IR filter but I've been too cheap to invest in a 67mm one for the DFA 21. A 52mm would fit 5 of the 7 primes I own (with a 49-52 adapter) - it might improve the hot spots the 21 suffers from, I don't fully understand the issues which drive that.

[loris nerozzi]

I've been looking at IR again after a bit of a break. Walking past my local church I noticed a little bit of ivy has grown over some stones I've shot before - in fact, in 2003 I won a magazine competition with one shot on the Optio 430RS - the prize was to have your picture printed without being paid :-)

For this I wedged my gel IR filter inside the lens hood of the DFA 21 ltd.
I usually do a filter-less version which would tell me what the difference in exposure is - this time I wasn't thinking :-( Based on "sunny 16" I would guess 1/100th @ f/11 so roughly 1/400th at the f/5.6 I used. With the camera's IR blocker and the IR only filter in place working to let no light through this was 20 seconds at f/5.6 ISO 100 (about 13 stops loss of light) That makes for a noisy live view and difficulty focusing perfectly, so I typically won't use the widest aperture. The text on the grave stone on the right edge was perfectly legible and I applied a little blur round the edges - although it was someone who died in 1904 it still doesn't feel right to include his name.

The 21 was too wide, and thanks to modern coatings is prone to hotspots with IR (a wider aperture might help a little bit, so might a better filter arrangement but one to fit the DFA 21 is expensive) when I cropped hotspots out I had the image I wanted it's about half the width and half the height but that's OK. I might have more tries with this using some other lenses (Lens Hotspot Database ? Kolari Vision reckons the 43 is good so when it gets back from repair I'll probably try with that and/or my 1980s Tokina 28mm).


Comments welcome

This photo reminds me of the early sixties, when J started making photos, to develop the image we had to use the "dark room", today whit digital, as you know, processing "white room" is even easier to get better results.
Excellent B&W photo of a place where silence reigns.
Many thanks for sharing James.
Loris.