Long Exposure Infrared Photography

Some Infrared Photographic Observations - Long Exposure Photography

My friend Michael MichiLauke asked a few weeks ago what had happened to my infrared photography, as I had been posting very little work in this area. My Australian trip was mainly to blame as I did not take either of my IR cameras nor any other gear with me. However, I have been remedying this is in the last few weeks with some studies in my local Park, (the first image) and now with an extensive study of long exposure infrared photography in and around the burns and rivers near my cottage in Scotland.


  "Some Infrared Reflections 1"      "Victorian IR 3 Lake Wendouree Tree"


I have previously described two variations on infrared photography, modestly called the Okavanga Technique and the Okavanga Effect   The Okavanga Effect v2The infrared images below were taken only a few seconds apart and, with only one difference between them, they have been treated in post-processing in exactly the same way. Yet that single difference has caused the very substantial change in the character, colours, and tonality of the images, with bright yellow areas dominating the visual space. It is this that I call, rather immodestly, the Okavanga Effect.
                         
The images have the following in common. A Canon 40D camera converted to full spectrum capabilities was used, fitted with an R72 infrared filter. The camera was tripod mounted. A custom white balance was employed, this having been obtained by shooting with the R72 filter in place against a standard grey card. Other than the R72 filter, no other filter was used. Light conditions were identical with the shots  that I derived from using a Full Spectrum camera, my converted Canon 40D, with a 3 stop Cokin neutral density (ND) filter. In summary, the Cokin ND filter cuts out visible light, but not IR light. Thus, the IR component dominates the light hitting the sensors, and only very bright or intense coloured light, say from a blue sky, is visible in the image, see the second image. However, the Cokin ND filters use so-called "organic glass" (a plastic) with a "black" dye (a commercial secret) as the agent that stops visible light. I have now investigated what happens if a conventional glass ND filter is used. The result is simply stated: a conventional glass ND filter reduces both visible and IR light, and thus behaves differently from the Cokin filters. This has a very important consequence - it makes long exposure IR photography of moving objects possible. By long exposure, I mean exposure times from about 1/10 th second up to tens of seconds. The image, "Infrared Burns and Rivers 1", provides my first example. This is a 1 second exposure with a 10 stop filter a (Big Stoppa filter) fitted on top of an R72 filter on an EFS 18-55 mm Canon kit lens, a lens I have previously found to be very versatile for IR work. We see the long strands of the flowing water, as well as the "white" foliage associated with IR images.

   "Infrared Burns and Rivers 1"      "Infrared Burns and Rivers 2"

The viewer may also note that this image is toned (selenium) and has high contrasts. This is because I have recently moved to using the Google/Nik Silver Efex Pro software support.google.com/nikcollecti… as a result of discussion in South Africa with my friend mikeloveridge. He uses "Tonality", monochrome software for the Mac, macphun.com/tonality, regretably not available on Windows. However, the Silver Efex Pro provides similar functionality. What I have come to realise, and about time too some might say, is that the conventional capture of monochrome images and their subsequent processing by photo-editing software really does not emulate the traditional wet chemistry photographic films. Those were designed to give rich black tones and truncated white tones, thereby adding contrast and impact to the images. Software such as Silver Efex Pro allows emulation of a score or more of popular monochrome films along with several other tools to develop contrast and tones in images. I would be happy to explain details of what I do with interested parties.

The next few images show some further long exposure shots of burns and rivers made in a similar manner.


 "Infrared Burns and Rivers 3"     "Infrared Burns and Rivers 4"  


  "Infrared Burns and Rivers 5" 


  "Infrared Burns and Rivers 6"    "Infrared Burns and Rivers 7"


One further point needs to be made about these images. While the viewer is free to make up their mind as to whether the shots have any artistic or indeed photographic merit, they all represent not only highly contrasted visual images, but also examples of one of my favourite topics - Itten contrasts  okavanga.deviantart.com/journa…. We have the contrast of the literally rock solid and immovable objects versus the flowing mobile water, the contrast of both of these inanimate elements with the living organic grasses, bushes, and trees, and all of these with the semi-permanent standing waves within the flowing water.

Many Thanks for your attention.

Cheers

David