Ive been looking at some Infrared photography and I find it verry interesting so I thought I would try a roll and experiment. Im just a little confused about the exposure readings. Im using Kodak HIE film with a #25 red filter, acording to the table inside the box I set the film speed to 50. Now do I take my exposure as I normaly would? Should I use my TTL meter with filter or a hand meter? Then from what I understand I should Bracket about 3 stops and focus to the IR spot on my lense( which none of my newer Nikon lense have!) Any other tips on IR would be helpfull Thanks

-- Mark Parks (mark4583@aol.com), August 31, 2001

Answers

I did some infrared photography a number of years ago and loved the results, but hated the exposure process. Infrared is not visable light, therefore your light meter is useless. Even your eye is useless. I found that the amount of light (visable) is not a good indicator of exposure, but the "brightness" is. You will have to shoot many negs (take notes) and learn to judge exposure. There are infrared filters sold by Hoya, Tiffen, etc, that block all visable light (thats why a #25 filter is recommended), That you could put in front of your light meter to see if there is alot of infrared or just a little. you will find that you will be shooting on bright days so once and exposure is determined it will vary little. the reason for the infrared mark on camera lenses is that infrared light is a different wavelenght that visable light so the lens focuses a different setting. Just remember that all focus settings are off by that small amount not just infinity (being close is good enough - I just focused and then moved the lens another 3/16 inch to the right). The bracket 3 stops is just the filter factor for the #25 filter. You have to forget everything you know about visable light photography and start thinking in the infrared. There are many good books about infrared photography, Kodak has one. Good luck.

-- Donald Degen (6228fotoguy@home.com), September 01, 2001.

Hi Mark,

This note may be a little late, If you haven't done much with the Kodak HIE stop right now. The first thing you sould do is purchase (eiter new or used) the best Infrared book on the market. The book is: "Infrared Photography Handbook" by Laurie White ISBN # 0-936262-38-9 published by

-- alan blumenstock (booanglr@rochester.rr.com), September 15, 2001.

woops got a little crazy with the keyboard!

publisher is Amherst Media

This book covers it all - qualities of infrared light, how to shoot your first roll of film, previsualize your photo, and composition. I don't think you can go wrong.

Peace,

Alan

-- alan blumenstock (booanglr@rochester.rr.com), September 15, 2001.

Rather late response, but here goes.

1) I've found that setting ISO to 200 and using the camera's TTL metering works reasonably well with an EOS 10s and a red 25 filter. If there's a lot of sunlight then there'll be more IR and I usually bracket 1 stop then. AEB is good for this.

2) I don't do focus compensation when using a red 25 filter. This is, in my opinion, one of the great myths of IR. A lot of visible light is let through by a red 25 filter, and adjusting to the lens IR mark simply throws the focussing totally out. If you use a visible- opaque filter then focus compensation is needed.

-- NK Guy (tela@tela.bc.ca), October 04, 2001.

I think cheese makes a good filter, what I like to do is slice about a quarter of an inch thick piece off of some government cheese and then place that slab in front of the lense.. it does require ALOT of focus compensation, but the end results are well worth it and quite tasty!

-- Bob Harvey (bob@marcopolo.org), November 06, 2001.