Filter experiments: blue

It's taken me a while to get around to doing some serious experimentation with my FujiFilm IS-Pro. This is basically a FujiFilm S5 with the infrared blocking filter removed and while, when released, it was ludicrously expensive the price came down to clear stock. As far as I know it was the only commercially available infrared-capable DSLR since the early Kodaks.

With an SLR the difficulty when photographing using infrared film was being able to see through the viewfinder. Of course you could use a tripod but this wasn't always an option. Most of the time I used a deep red (#25) filter, which gave a good Wood effect but could still be seen through, albeit dimly. The problem continues with a DSLR, especially if you don't have a live view mode.

I thought I'd try filtration alternatives with the DSLR - red, yellow (minus-blue) and blue - as alternatives to opaque infrared-pass filters such as the Hoya R72. The plan was to be able to see through the lens while making the most of the sensor resolution, which means always using the green channel as it has twice the pixels of the others in the Bayer matrix. Of course the Bayer processing mixes things up quite a bit and in an ideal world I'd write my own RAW decoder ... but perhaps that's for later.

I took the opportunity of a holiday in southern Spain ... with lots of sun and plenty of foliage ... to try out using a blue filter, a #47 colour-separation filter made by Tiffen. The light path is like this ...

... because the blue filter does pass a significant amount of near-infrared. I think all blue filters do but I can only vouch for the Tiffen.

Initial experimentation suggested that setting the camera's auto-exposure to -3 or -4 EV brought the histogram into the centre for all channels and the autofocus would work. I could also shoot at f8 and ISO 100 since there was plenty of 'light' available. The lens I used was a Nikkor 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom which appears completely immune to the notorious hot-spot.

This is the result straight out of the camera (apart from some desaturation of the blue channel).

The colour palette isn't as broad as the one you get using an R72 (less greens) but I thought it quite pleasant. And what about the green channel on its own for that pure infrared look?

Pretty promising I think.

Richard Mosse in Liverpool

Richard Mosse's colour infrared images from the Democratic Republic of Congo are currently on show at the Open Eye Gallery on Liverpool waterfront. It runs until June 10th 2012.

There's also an interesting interview with Richard by Phil Coomes in his Viewfinder blog on the BBC web site.

Simon Weir: Web, book and lecture

I was recently reminded of Simon Weir, whose landscape infrared photos are always worth a look.

He's now used Blurb to produce a book. Blub is one of those online book-production facilities and in this case use Indigo printers (of which I am extremely fond and which we use for our own calendars). There is an online preview of Simon's book, which is called Beyond Visible Light and I recommend using the full-screen preview to check out the photos. Whether you then buy a copy is up to you.

Also, if you're a member of the London Nikon Owners Group, Simon will be talking about his infrared photography, and infrared in general, on Friday evening (27th April) in sunny South Kensington. (More info on their blog.)

Thermal volcano video

BBC web site has a brief thermal video of the Sakurajima volcano in Japan erupting.

Look at the second part of this video.

Richard Mosse exhibition and book

One of the more popular posts in this blog was the one last May discussing Richard Mosse's medium-format colour infrared reportage shots. The extra resolution brought to what is basically the discontinued infrared Ektachrome by moving from 35mm to larger formats is extraordinary. (I omitted to ask Richard whether he processed the film AR5 or E6 since Kodak admitted there would be a significant difference in saturation.)

If you're in New York you have a chance to see an exhibition of the photos from this project of Richard's, called Infra, at the Aperture Gallery at 547 W. 27th St. (On the 4th floor.) More information here.

Those of us who can't get to W27th Street can make do with the book, published by Aperture with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

The legendary Abe Frajndlich, no slouch when it comes to infrared himself (one of his infrared photos was in the Infrared 100 exhibition), tells me he found the prints on show 'stunning' when he visited an earlier incarnation of this exhibition. As I've said before, good colour film infrared photography is a rare animal, and Richard is a great exponent of this. You should also check out his web site and that of the guy who provides him with his film stock, Dean Bennici who has an amazing collection of colour infrareds on his web site.

Although this time it's not infrared I should also point you at Abe Frajndlich's latest book, which is the culmination of a long-running project to photograph photographers. Check out this from the New York Times and don't forget to click on the article link at the lower right.