Down the Infraroad

My Sony F828 camera makes an exposure through a 720nm infrared filter yesterday.
My Sony F828 camera makes an exposure through a 720nm infrared filter yesterday.

Four years ago I posted a piece about experimenting with infrared imaging, making photographs with visible light filtered out to some degree. The camera I used at the time was the bulky, heavy, cumbersome Kodak DCS720x, which I selected because it has a removable infrared filter, which, when removed, allowed infrared energy through to the sensor.

That camera, though, is a dinosaur, and while I was getting to know its infrared abilities, I simply never brought it anywhere.

I made this far-infrared image at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa a few years ago, and was intrigued by the result, but not as happy with the camera, the heavy, cumbersome Kodak DCS720x.
I made this far-infrared image at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa a few years ago, and was intrigued by the result, but not as happy with the camera, the heavy, cumbersome Kodak DCS720x.

With my infrared experiments at a standstill, I was searching for something else not long ago and came across a YouTube video of a photographer who showed us how to make infrared images with the Sony Cybershop F828, using a magnet to move the IR-blocking filter out of the optical path. I was interested.

I grabbed my F828, which I bought on eBay for $50, a tripod, and my 720nm filter, and set out to see if this camera might be the one to deliver. I played around with it for a few minutes, making a few images from the front porch. Unlike the Kodak, the Sony is a live view camera, so I could actually see an image in the viewfinder.

I’ll let my readers decide if the result is interesting.

This is the result of yesterday's quick infrared experiment. It only required a few simple steps in Photoshop to make it visually interesting.
This is the result of yesterday’s quick infrared experiment. It only required a few simple steps in Photoshop to make it visually interesting.

2 Comments

  1. I do think the latter result is interesting, perhaps even otherworldly, though it’s not really to my taste. I’ve never experimented with infrared photography, though I know a few photographers on Flickr who seem to focus solely on this type.

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