Pinhole IR Photography 3

A short series of digital infrared images captured by using a Skink pancake pinhole lens covered with a 720 nm (R72) IR filter. The camera was my Full Spectrum converted Canon 40D. Exposure times for this work were in he range 0.5 to 1 second. The f no. is very large (45??) and consequently these images are prone to have lots of dust bunnies. I have done my best to remove these using Lightroom spot removal tool, but some are still present. The pinhole aperture is 0.3 mm, an aperture that seems to allow optimal IR focus on the sensor. The out-of-camera images were post-processed in Lightroom and with the Nik/Google software Silver Efex Pro 2 to enhance the contrast such that the images present a full tonal range.

Obviously, being pinhole and IR images, the focus is very soft. However, this is part of the appeal and the shots possess quite a haunting, surreal feel, especially if viewed from a distance.

A quick search on DeviantArt for "pinhole infrared" gives 23 hits, of which about 20 are to do with infrared film. Two photographers are prominent HorstSchmier and coldmarble. Their works are worth checking out. There may be one digital pinhole by jimmyhat, but details are not given. Consequently, this set of images, if not absolutely a first on DeviantArt, are the best described digital pinhole work so far. (Unless someone else comes forward?)

Many, many thanks to my dear friend Andrea feigenfrucht for her help and encouragement behind the scenes with this pinhole work.