Infrared rainbows

It was Robert Greenler who, having deduced that there should be an infrared component to a terrestrial rainbow, finally succeeded in photographing a natural one in 1970. I've had a go myself and if the sky does what you need and the camera is steady enough it is not too difficult to give it a go yourself.

Scientific American recently published an article entitles Think You Know Rainbows? Look Again, which discussed and showed examples of rainbows that were not particularly rainbow coloured, including a white one and a red one.

The red example in the article (reproduced above) was taken from the Wikimedia Commons, and was taken by Jason Campbell in 2011. The cause, as the article explains, is that the light source is a setting sun and at this point only red light was available to be refracted by water droplets to form the bow.

You probably see where I'm going here. Let's assume that near-IR is also in the sunlight as the sun sets and that this remains a little after the red has gone. In this case it should be possible for an infrared-only rainbow to exist.

Presumably anyone with a suitable light source and some fine mist could produce one in the lab but has anyone managed to take a photograph of such a thing 'in the wild'?

[As an aside, I recently saw that the light from a rainbow is polarised along the circumference of the bow. Obvious when you think about it but I'd never noticed before.]

A new inexpensive thermal camera from CAT ... in a phone

Last June I had a chance to look at the Flir One thermal add-on for the iPhone. This was based on Flir's tiny Lepton bolometer. This has a resolution of 80 by 60 pixels and is aimed at OEMs to incorporate in various devices.

The latest is an Android mobile phone from Reading UK-based CAT called the S60, which was launched yesterday at the Mobile World Congress.

The CAT literature doesn't mention thermal resolution, although there is some online speculation that Flir's Lepton is now available with 160 by 120 pixel resolution, as reported by Ars Technica last August. Whatever it is, the CAT device seems to make use of the same blending technology that the Flir one uses to give false-resolution to the thermal image, which makes it much more useful. The visible and thermal cameras are also much closer together in the CAT, which will reduce need to correct the parallax errors at close distances that the original Flir One exhibited.

This is still not really of a sufficient 'quality' to be an artistic imaging device, but if you're a plumber, heating engineer or electrician this is a kind of tool that will soon be making its way into your toolbox.

You can see the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones trying one out, and chatting to 'the man from CAT' in this video clip.

Some infrared landscapes to savour

I was pointed to Welsh-based photographer Andy Lee's infrared landscapes by an article in Wired. He's been shooting with a converted Nikon D800 and (I think) an R72 filter but it's the locations that make the pictures for me. Mountainous landscapes in Patagonia and Iceland feature in the infrared examples on his web site and at quite high resolutions as well.

Laurie Klein in London

Laurie Klein, of 'Photographing the Female form with Digital Infrared' fame (and a new book on the way ... see my previous post) will be in London next week to present two talks at the SWPP Convention.

The two talks are:

• Weddings, Portraits, and Life Journey Photography with Digital Infrared - Thursday 21st 1000-1200 [more]
• Finding The Unique Visual Voice - Friday 22nd 1630-1830 [more]

I won't be able to get along but I recommend Laurie's 'Female Form' book and am looking forward to seeing the new one. In any event, how often do you get to hear from someone who studied with Ansel Adams?

New Books for a New Year

I've been notified of three photographic books that may be of interest, coming out over the next few weeks (or May in one case).

Ed Thompson's The Unseen: An Atlas of Infrared Plates has a May 2016 publication date from Schilt Publishing and a cost of €45. More information on their web site.

I love the idea that this is somehow an old-fashioned atlas of hitherto unknown territory ... down the spectrum with gun and camera (without the gun) in the manner of a Victorian explorer. One thing I would take issue with is the publisher's quote that "Thompson has created a swan song to the medium of infrared photography" since the technique is alive and well. What this is a swan song to is infrared film of course, and especially the false-colour infrared film that Kodak used to produce, and of which Ed is an accomplished exponent.

I've mentioned Laurie Klein, and her book Photographing the Female Form with Digital Infrared, before. Her follow-up is almost with us, co-written with her son Kyle Klein, and published by Amherst on January 12th 2016 at $37.95 (list).

I haven't seen the book on paper as yet, but there's a comprehensive preview on Amazon and it will also be available from other stores who stock Amherst's books..

Finally, a quick note to say that Elliott Landy's Kickstarted book of The Band Photographs (Big Pink etc) is now available in various enhanced formats from his web site ... and going fast ... (there's a preview there as well as on Amazon) and from book stores. Prices range from $45 to $500 and Elliott's web site is offering the first edition print of the book. I mention this because, although they are in a minority, there is a section of infrared photos amongst this set. I wrote more about this almost exactly a year ago.