Infared Shooting

A title like Maki the I.R Photographer doesn’t really fit me because I’m still new into I.R and it sounds funny if you tell it to some DPP forum members who know something about I.R Photographers beyond the scope of Infrared Photography…hehehe. I actually bought a Hoya R72 Infrared Filter lately, it’s pretty expensive for a filter, but then I was just interested in shooting images in infrared lately more than just shooting things with bare need for any post-processing other than little quirks in exposure, color, contrast etc.



I gave my filter a test run during a short-lived vacation during the whole weekend. I’m amazed with the color ranges and channel swapping you can do with photoshop with the basic captures. Using an IR filter is like no other filters since you can barely see anything to compose a shot on the camera’s viewfinder. You also have to set the whitebalance according to the surroundings and all those other quirks in shooting. Images look bloody red before color channels are swapped via Photoshop:

Unprocessed Picture

I personally love how Infrared post-processing turns healthy trees like Cherryblossom trees

Shooting at Infrared is not an easy task. It really requires a lot of patience and scrutiny with camera settings, awareness of the weather, foliage etc. . I’m currently a statistical member of those who shot images with the so-called ‘hots spots’ (see my unprocessed infrared shot..it’s at the middle of the frame :P) . It’s really a sickness of my kitlens, so that experience alone suggests in buying a good hot spot-free wide angle lens…*cough* *cough*.:P

Well, here are the other few shots I made during the weekend. If you’re interested in shooting IR, just tell me because I’m really going gaga on shooting IR on places with lots of foliage on one sunny weekend.