Geekery...

[miss_squiddy]

Anyone got any good tips on Infra-red photography? I'm taking photos of a twighlight iron pour on Monday and I've never tried IR film before. However, I do already know that my good camera will fog the film up - it says so in the manual. *sigh*

wintrmute: I know you've done some in the past - how do you think it will work with extreme temperatures?

Comments

[clovenhoof.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest giving phiil a shout. he's done IR photography before using his digital camera and seems to know a fair bit about it... that is if you can get hold of him...

[serena-lesley.livejournal.com]

I'd add ev1ldonut to this suggestion, since he's got an IR filter for his camera and has done recent research into it. :)

[miss_squiddy]

Good call! I'll see if I can catch him on MSN or something...

[phiil.livejournal.com]

Hey Laura,

I'm on nocturnal timing lately, but give me a call and I'll wake up :)
I've got a film camera that works OK with IR film, but I'm not sure if I still have my IR filter for it. I'll have a look.

Phil

[miss_squiddy]

Thanks, but I've got all the stuff - it's been lying around my place for aaages. Thought this might be a good excuse to use it at last. What I really want to know is what kind of effect the hot metal will give...

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I've only just started getting into IR photography, and only in digital format (using a 720nm filter, I'm only just starting to work out how to use it properly). You could try asking on uk_photography?

[serena-lesley.livejournal.com]

Bah, and here was me thinking you'd found out some useful stuff so far... :P

[ev1ldonut.livejournal.com]

Well, I have for digital, but her question was about film, which is something I know very little about I'm afraid. :/

Squiddy, if you want to talk about digital IR, then I can probably help there?

[miss_squiddy]

Sorry - I don't do digital. I prefer actual film. (Mmmmmmnnrrmmm historians...)

[orkney-rob.livejournal.com]

Righty - easy solution then! Go and get yourself an old, fully mechanical, film SLR. Will be cheap as chips since no one wants them anymore and I am sure you can find something in Cardiff! You can get an Olympus OM10 plus 50mm lens for £60 easilly, but should be able to find a lot of alternatives much, much cheaper. Basically so long as it has a mechanical film counter you are laughing!

Then purchase an IR filter to pop on the end of the lens and you are away! It's a lot of fun - used to play with Ilford IR film quite a lot in the dim and distant past (and I still have an old fully mechanical Nikkormat incase the urge takes me again!)

Film is ace... but I have defected now and indulged in a horribly expensive digital SLR instead on the grounds that I was starting to get through far too much film and spending far too many hours scanning it all in once it came back from the processors!!!! Oh aye, for developing... if you aren't doing it yourself, try Peak Imaging in Sheffield (they are on t'interweb and everything). Very good service....

[miss_squiddy]

Got one, got one and know a place :D
What I really want to know is whether the extreme heat of the furnace and the cold of the air will be too much and blank out all the detail. And what makes for good effects?

[arachne.livejournal.com]

I have to ask (and feel free to not answer, or tell me to piss off...) are you really, actually from Orkney?

[orkney-rob.livejournal.com]

From Hoy ;-)

And from a very, very long line of Orcadians as well... it's an ace place, and Rackwick will always be my spirtual home (though the croft was actually on the other side of the island overlooking Scapa Flow, but that got sold off a back in the late 80's.

[orkney-rob.livejournal.com]

It's all down to experimentation so I have no idea... quite how a forge will come out I don't know - will be interesting to see though! I used to shoot trees and stuff, cos they look ace in IR!

Give it a shot - you could always take a normal roll of film with you as well and get a set of photo's on each ;-)

[miss_squiddy]

Oh yeah - I'll have some normal film with me anyway - Have to get some good pics of one of the sculptors finishing off some of our work. (He made a Turner prize winner too so that should be quite interesting...)

[arachne.livejournal.com]

Assuming you're using black and whit IR as opposed to colour? And assuming your camera's one of the few that have that ir number-counting thing?

If you use a different body, *IME* (and that's the important bit - this is something I don't have experience of and may not be able to ask resident experts about by the time you need answers - but I will be asking them) it should be ok. Bear in mind that "in focus" without ir (opaque, if b&w) filter *isn't* in focus with. A lot of lenses have ir focus marked in red, shifted a little from normal focus. If yours doesn't, it's down to guesswork I'm afraid.

[miss_squiddy]

Yep - black and white. I *think* that's going to look a lot better than colour for this type of thing.

My good camera doesn't IR focus (the manual says it will fog up IR film). So I've got two choices - either to try it on auto and hope that the fogging is only on the edge of the frame (apparently this is common) or resort to an old SLR point-and-click just to get some idea of what the end result will be before I try it out properly on conference next month...

I could only get Ilford film which isn't the best for IR and apparently I can use that with a deep red filter for similar effect. I'll be using both just to see what the difference is.

Thanks for the tips - If there's anything else you could tell me it would be much appreciated!

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

relatedly - not that I'm suggesting this is what you want it for, and trembling at the idea of lee's mighty buttocks in glorious IR - did you see:

http://www.strokemag.com/gallery/mag/mag1/back_strokes/moose/6-98/operation.php

?

hIfcNrgcNR

[(Anonymous)]

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