SamSpade's 2013 Project 365

I really have gotten a late start, but life has been kind of crazy for me. I am hoping to get caught up, these are some shots from my D200 IR conversion that I purchased not too long ago. I am still learning about this so you will see my mistakes and my successes in these and I will be posting quite a few as I am fascinated by IR photography.

Looks interesting, but the last two look a bit out of focus?

Rick M said:

Looks interesting, but the last two look a bit out of focus?

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From what I have read IR can tend to have a "soft" look to it. I just shot one off of a tripod a bit ago which was a macro and it has a similar look.There is quite a bit of a learning curve here for me with this new medium. I am reading up on it. The potential is awesome if I can wrap my brain around it.

It is a very unique form of photography, I'm look forward to seeing your progress!

This is the same macro image I shot earlier except converted to "color" IR color is not true color so to speak as I am finding out really still its a neat effect if I ever get it mastered.

When I played around with IR film and would compare the image with that taken with "normal" B&W or color film, the IR prints always did seem a little softer. I think is because of the longer wavelength of light in the IR region vs the visible region. Also, keep in mind that the optics are optimized for the visible spectrum, not the IR spectrum.

That is a good point Barbara thanks so much, I have been reading and apparently shooting really slow f/stops will sharpen things up also so pretty much tripods are a must for this type of work. I am going to be experimenting a lot more. I was tickled to get the conversion and finally play with it. It is something I wanted to do for a long time.

Very interesting exercise. Long ago I tried infra-red color film. The kind that gives red trees. Very challenging to work with (and focus with because the focus is shifted in IR). Yes the longer wavelengths provide less resolution than shorter ones. I think the softness is also in part from the focus shift. When I shot the color IR film, I used the red dot on the depth of field range. First I checked the focus on the barrel, then lined up that point with the red dot to compensate for the longer wavelengths (I was shooting on Minolta MD lenses at the time, but the AI-S lenses, for example, have the same red dot. What lens are you shooting with?

And it is never too late to start taking photos and seeing the world in a new way.....

crycocyon said:

Very interesting exercise. Long ago I tried infra-red color film. The kind that gives red trees. Very challenging to work with (and focus with because the focus is shifted in IR). Yes the longer wavelengths provide less resolution than shorter ones. I think the softness is also in part from the focus shift. When I shot the color IR film, I used the red dot on the depth of field range. First I checked the focus on the barrel, then lined up that point with the red dot to compensate for the longer wavelengths (I was shooting on Minolta MD lenses at the time, but the AI-S lenses, for example, have the same red dot. What lens are you shooting with?

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I have been using my AF Nikkor lenses but I am going to use some of my AI Nikkors and manually focus to the IR mark and see how images look. I am also going to work with more depth of field per the tutorials I have been reading.

I had been considering repurposing my old D90 as an IR body until I read that it is on the list of bodies that the folks at LifePixel are having issues achieving proper white balance with. There are software workarounds (Capture NX2), but I didn't want to change my workflow for it. There's definitely a learning curve to it, including getting a sharp focus. Some softness is definitely a function of the light you're not getting to the sensor any more, so you lose edges. My brother shoots a lot of it and we talked about some compensation he's needed to make with focus to get it crisp, but I don't recall what he does differently. Some of it will definitely have to do with the added exposure time required by the sensor. Maybe one of these days I'll get to it.

Looking forward to watching as you as you shoot more of it.

Todays IR shots both of which were done with a AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 these photos were both shot at f/22 and slow shutter speeds per some of the information I have found on the web. Interesting results for certain

For comparison here is the same blossoms shot in color with my D40 .

Some more experimentation today with my IR camera and I have learned something, if I set the camera into Black and White mode and shoot it seems to handle the images much better than leaving it in color mode than it does converting the images after transferring them from the camera to the computer. Still some softness and all but IMO an improvement the biggest learning curve is going to be post processing of which I am still reading up on.

Great project, Sam! I like the look . . . it's something I'm interested in also. Looking forward to watching your progress here

Thanks Helene its always wonderful to hear from you .

Some more photos today in IR, I actually love how it works for capturing animals , I am wanting to shoot some portraits with it soon based on some of the things I did around the farm today.





This is the same shot of Max in color that I made with my other D200 which has not been converted for comparison .

I cannot say I did anything new today but I have been working on some IR Post processing tutorials trying to hone my skills and gain a mastery of producing nice IR images that are visually appealing. So I took one of my previously posted IR images and reprocessed it in faux IR color based on one of the tutorials I have found on the web. The results were not that bad I do not think but I am still working on things and I need to get out and shoot some more images to work with as well.

Here is the country road image re processed into a color image.

I am still playing with processing these and experimenting. A macro I shot the other day of a rose that I processed in Silver Efex.

Photos from the Ice storm that happened last night / early this morning.