No wait, that title doesn’t work… Let’s try this one:
Further ramblings about a form of art which will, undoubtedly, lead to me tearing my face off and screaming at it, or: throwing my camera onto a highway and send the footage to youtube out of spite.
Yes, those titles are much better then the first one, and far more accurate.
So, I have decided, rather then go into a massive rant about the whole IR process, I have decided to just point out some things in a list, rant a little bit about them, then leave it at that. If you want to know more, feel free to send me an email, or leave a comment. I have made the decision today to write a “How-To” book for Digital Color Inferred Photography, so look forward to that in a few months. I mainly want to wait for summer to come and go, so I can demonstrate the differences in the time of year and the IR photography. Also, I am very lazy and don’t have any outright examples of these observed principals, but by the middle of the summer, I will, as the weather is going to be much better, as is the chance for a great demonstration of these observed principals.
The List of things to remember about DIRC Photography:
1. Directionality Matters:
a. This observation refers to the direction you are photographing your subject. In the case of normal photography, the direction your camera is pointing in relativity to the sun isn’t as important as it is in DIRC. If my subject is directly under the sun, as it is relevant to my camera and lens, and I shoot directly at them, you will get a very Orange-Redish tone to the photo, with very massive, very bright blue highlights on things such as skin, most kinds of fabrics, and etc… However, if I change my angle of the shot to even as much as a one(1) degree, I will lose the blue highlights, and the photo will be come much more contrasted. Now, if I alter my angle of shooting to a ninety(90) degree angle to the sun, my photo will become de-saturated, and mostly blue, with a few Red-Orangeish highlights, mainly in the bokeh, and further background details. Finally, if I shoot directly away from the sun, the photo becomes a very high contrast of blue and white colors. A final point: If you shoot directly at the sun down to an angle, from the reference of the sun, of 60 degrees, the photo will be bright Reds and bright Oranges with highlights of bright and dark Yellows. Of course there is enough exceptions to this rule I could write two books, but as I said before, this is a massive, broad, summery.
2. Lens Matters:
a. The type of lens matters, not only for the clarity of the photo, but ability it has to maintain the integrity of the light entering it. You would think that a high-end lens such as the Nikkor 200mm ƒ/2 would be a better choice then a low-end lens, such as the Tamron 28-300mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 Macro, but you would be wrong. Every type of lens is created completely different the any other lens, thus, the Nikkor 50mm ƒ/1.4D is completely different then the Nikkor 50mm ƒ/1.8D, in regards to DIRC. Some lenses maintain the visible spectrum of light, holding the integrity very well, however they utterly destroy IR light, were-as some lenses destroy the visible spectrum creating “soft images,” but maintain the IR spectrum, giving the image a sharper look on an IR camera. It is all about experimenting with your lenses you choose. I would invest in a lot of batteries and a very good tri-pod, plus shutter release.
b. There is another side to the lens mattering: the temperature of the lens can alter you photos dramatically. If you have a cold lens, and the ambient temperature is much warmer then the lens, your photo will become soft, and very dark, with an extreme hard contrast of Blacks and Yellows. I have yet to conduct in-depth tests into this observation, but I plan on delving deeper into it as the weather improves. I have just noticed this effect recently, and have decided to prioritize other observations over this one, as it seems to be a major extreme. By that I mean: The only times this has happened is when I remove my lens from my basement (52-58 degrees) and taken it outside on a hot day (70+ degrees) then began shooting with it nearly immediately.
3. White-Balance Matters:
a. I do believe I have over-emphasized this observation, but I figured I would restate it: The first thing you need to do after getting a new DIRC SLR is choose a few custom white-balances. Do not even consider using any other white-balance setting besides “custom.” The custom white-balance should be ether a dark green, the blue sky with some foliage, or the nude, human body with a black background.
4. Skin Matters:
a. This observation is in consideration to portraits and people. I have yet to master this observation and create a technique from it, but I will tell you what I have witnessed, thus far in my career. If your subject happens to have any veins, varicose or other-wise, near the surface of the skin; in some cases the veins will become apparent and outstanding as black lines across the body. This is due to the fact that IR light is nearly completely consumed and destroyed by blood.
b. I have yet to figure out how to make the veins appear, or disappear. Thus far I have only observed it occurring when the subject is dehydrated, excessively warm, in bright, direct, sunlight, with their back towards the sun, and the frame shot towards the sun. The settings of the camera can even affect the outcome of the presence of the veins, or lack-there-of. As I learn more I will continue to record my findings and present them here and in the booklet. But I believe this observation is complex enough to warrant its own booklet.
5. Weather Matters:
a. The weather obviously matters, nearly as much, if not slightly more then, it does in SD (Standard Digital) photography. The main, outstanding reason for this is because clouds can easily terminate IR light; even the thinnest clouds you cannot see with your naked eye can alter IR light. This mostly goes unspoken and assumed, but I have chosen to speak of it, as nothing can be assumed with IR except: It is the pure embodiment of Chaos.
b. This point ties into the next point by proxy, and that point ties into Point 7, by proxy. The season alters weather.
6. Season Matters:
a. The season of the year, and by proxy, your geographic location, matters very much. Simply put, IR light is so “fragile” that in the time it takes to travel from the sun, to the earth, the distance between 0 feet above sea level, and 14,000 feet above sea-level is great enough that the IR light is highly degraded, enough to disallow you to take a photo at sea-level, but easily take one at 14,000-feet. So, this would mean, if the sun remains higher in the sky, for longer, more IR light can reach the planet. It also means that the “first flare,” and “final flare,” that occurs at sunrise and sunset last a few minutes longer, and have a much, much, higher intensity.
b. The season has a great effect on weather too. You don’t get lightening in the middle of the December do you? But this question brings me to a point that Location is also as equally important as Weather and Season. You would get lightening in the middle of December if you lived in the southern hemisphere. Hence; my next Point.
7. Location Matters:
a. Location of your IR shots is as equally important as Weather and Season. As I stated before: IR at sea level is completely different then IR at 14,000 feet. As is the IR different in Alaska then it is in New Zealand. There isn’t much to elaborate on this observation that I have not yet already stated, but: Just be aware of where you are. I can tell you that IR light is much more intense at higher points on the planet, both in feet-above-sea-level, and in physical orientation on the planet earth in relevance to the north pole and the south pole.
8. File Type Matters:
a. The file type of your DIRC photos can greatly alter your photos, but this is mainly due to the camera itself, not the IR light. There is a small amount of involvement with the light, but for the most part it is dependant on your camera and its ability to process the information and write it into the file format. For the most part, you should stick with .JPG or .TIFF, as most .RAW file types will be translated at least 3 times before it is on your screen and ready to print. These three interpretations can degrade or alter your photo completely. The safest format is .TIFF, but most camera’s won’t write .TIFF unless they are high-end bodies, thus, most people stick with .JPG, as most camera’s maintain the same encoding for .JPG. That brings us to Point 9.
9. Camera Matters:
a. The varying types of camera can even alter the entire process of DIRC photography. This is another, “goes without saying” matter, but I feel it should be mentioned only because, as the camera gets better, the IR gets far more complicated. I won’t go into all of the massive details of this at the moment, but for the moment, just consider: Going with a higher-end IR camera may not be the best idea, unless you are truly considering spending more time shooting DIRC then SD. For the most part, consider an entry level DSLR before considering something like the D200, or D300, or an equivalent. It will be much easier to get a good understanding of how to shoot DIRC if you start with something like the D40.
10. Subject Matters:
a. This observation is one of the most important ones to mention, and an entire booklet could be written about this one thing. The subject you are photographing makes a huge difference. More-so then with SD photography. This is because some objects don’t absorb IR light, or they may destroy it, or polarize it, etc… Biological matter such as pine needles and oak leaves act very differently with consideration to IR light. A green pine needle on the tree will be white, were-as if it falls off the tree and turns brown, it will be black, or dark-blue, however, it if is still on the tree near the tree bark, it will show up as a dull-white. An oak leaf, however, will always show up as white, or dull-white regardless of the state the leaf is in. If it is green on the branch, or black and brown on the ground threes after falling off, it will show up white to dull-white. However, if there is water on the leaf, or the leaf is soaked in water, it will turn out to be brown, or dark-blue. Water is another example of how important the subject matter is. IR light is not affected by water, meaning that it simply passes right on through, not being absorbed, refracted, or reflected. If you took a picture of water in only the IR spectrum of light, nothing would show up, not even the “specularity.” However, the specularity (the light bouncing off of the tops of waves, creating the “sparkling” effect) does show up in DIRC photography because the camera not only sees the IR spectrum of light, but the visible spectrum too. As I said, there is a multitude of considerations when deciding who and what to photograph, in reference to DIRC photography. You simply have to experiment with your subjects.
So, there you have it; a list of everything you have to consider when using DIRC photography. This type of photography is not for the faint-of-heart, nor those who do not wish to relearn everything they know, then forget it all. The worse part about shooting any IR photography is the fact that the human eye can not see IR light, thus, you have to know the science behind the IR spectrum of light, and know how it is going to react to differing situations. There are a few light-meters in existence that see and measure IR light, but they cost up-to and above 8,000$
There is a multitude of considerations to IR photography, but thankfully, digital conversions (provided by LifePixel) have eliminated a vast amount of the problems with IR photography. Now, thanks to LifePixel, you can concentrate on the shot, not the equipment, and the post-process, making DIR photography accessible to a larger range of people. However, the difficult considerations and knowledge needed to work with it still make it a very limited medium of art with respects to those who are willing to deal with those difficulties.
I am proud to be one of those people, except on those days I want to throw myself into traffic, or, as I stated before, the camera, into traffic. Whichever one would look better.
So, in summery:
Digital Inferred Photography is very, very difficult to master, if it is even possible to do so, but when you are fortunate to get your shot, it is all well worth it. It is nearly impossible to know exactly what the IR light is doing in any given area and time, but, with the right knowledge and research, along with a lot of luck, you might get a great shot, unlike anything, anyone, has ever seen; or at-least something that is fantastically different then normal photography.
So, there you have it, a small rant about DIRC Photography... again.
