Further adventures in Infra Red

The Nikon D1X has been stored in the camera bag for the last few months due to the perpetual cold, and the constant dull overcast skies and rain. Finally the weather broke and the sun appeared. So with the battery charged I ventured out.

Since getting the camera and thoroughly reading the manual I figured out how to stop the aperture moving with the focal length, buried in the custom functions menu was the option to turn this feature off. Off it went.

As I have been shooting IR for a while now, I have picked up an invaluable piece of information that relates to how the images that the camera records will convert to give that IR effect during the processing of the images.

The key is setting the White balance [WB]. I have seen that some IR shooters leave the camera on “Auto” but I have found that setting the WB to custom then using the captured shot to set the WB the easiest way to get the foliage the ethereal “white”.

The best results are by using a green background to fill the frame, shooting this then using it as the reference to set the balance. This will set the WB to give better foliage reproduction in the processed image. I also shoot only in JPEG, I have read that some shoot in RAW but as the images don’t require the same degree of adjustment I tend to keep it simple. Processing the images is where the fun starts. I have read various workflows, which always seem to increase in complexity, I’m sure these are for people who have hours to spend stuck indoors. I’d rather be out with the camera.