Today I had the opportunity to go for a small walk in the mid afternoon with my daughter. In the spirit of living a photographic life – and making the most of every opportunity – I brought along one of my Canon 20Ds which I have had converted to a dedicated infrared camera by LifePixel.
Speaking of LifePixel they have recently launched a brand new website as well as a new Super Color Infrared filter which you may want to check out. It looks pretty wild. I have just had the standard IR conversion done to my Canon 20D, but the Super Color Infrared filter looks pretty cool too. However it may not be to everyone’s taste.
Shooting with a dedicated infrared camera is a lot of fun, and if you are considering converting one of your older digital cameras then I can recommend the service provided by LifePixel. They did a quick and professional job on my Canon 20D and turned it all around really quickly considering the camera was going from Australia to the US and back again! It was all very prompt and an easy and good experience.
Anyway…
My plan was to make a few infrared Lensbaby images today, so I fitted my Lensbaby Composer together with a 1.6 telephoto lens in front of the Canon 20D. I wanted to isolate a particular tree that we have just down the road in what is essentially just a very small patch of nature backing up to an industrial estate. It’s the very same area where I made the tree images in this article.
The Tree
When I was post-processing the image this afternoon I ended up playing around with the Red, Green and Blue channels and decided to keep some colour in the image rather than converting to black and white as I did in this image and this image.
I ended up really liking the colours as they turned out. The seem to give the picture a dreamlike quality.
What do you think?
8. January 2010 at 11:06 pm
What a great picture!
IMHO it was good to leave some colour and not just do a black and white conversion.
The tones really work in combination with the “Lensbaby effect”, i.e. they fit perfectly together, giving the picture a special atmosphere.
I want to buy a Lensbaby this year (probably Composer), so it is great to see it in use – especially in combination with IR.
About IR:
I also have an analog Nikon SLR (which I mainly use for occasional bw shoots) – does it suffice to use an IR film with analog SLRs or do they also have to be converted?
8. January 2010 at 11:20 pm
Hi Timo,
Thank you very much for your kind comments.
I’m particularly happy about your comment about ‘a special atmosphere’. I’m a big fan of mood in images, but it’s an elusive thing to try and capture.
I’ve never used IR film myself (only the converted IR digital Canon 20D I have), but yes, I’m sure you can achieve some fine IR results with film. However I’m not quite sure what your options are in terms of playing with colour when you scan your IR images from film?
It could be worth giving it a try and see what you come up with. I’d be keen to see your images.
Thanks,
Thomas
9. January 2010 at 3:16 am
I like your infra-red shots, Thomas. I have played with Photoshop to achieve IR-looking effects, but they are never anywhere as good as the real thing.
Timo – the conversion Thomas speaks of for DSLRs involves removing an IR filter that is in front of the digital sensor, something that doesn’t exist on a SLR, so just using IR film would work fine.
I’m keen to see your results!
10. January 2010 at 11:12 pm
Thanks for your comments and input Mike.
10. January 2010 at 9:29 am
Yes, great image Thomas, I think you have achieved a fantastic effect in the combination of IR and Lensbaby. And i really like the composition too, the darker foreground against the brighter background.
I was actually thinking about turning my old Nikon D70 into an IR camera, but I ended up selling it to get the Canon G11. It would probably be more exciting to follow my first plan, but I really needed a smaller camera to bring with me.
10. January 2010 at 11:18 pm
Thanks Trond, I appreciate your comments!
I completely understand your preference.
I think you will get a lot of good images out of the G11 as you will no doubt carry it with you a lot more than a DSLR.
In many ways a converted infrared is a bit of luxury which I only afforded myself because I sold my Hasselblad Xpan II in order to upgrade my 20D to a 5D. As it happened, though, this allowed me to keep my old 20D, buy a second 20D cheap on Ebay, and then convert that second 20D to infrared.
This made sense to me as I then still had a back-up camera, plus I had a couple of the EF-S lenses which only works with smaller sensors.
Enjoy your G11!