Infrared photography

Here is my first set of images taken with my new Canon 5DIR. It's an infrared 5D that has undergone conversion by Advanced Camera Systems, specifically for review purposes. There's no going back, it's a one way street for the old Canon 5D, but after shooting infrared in the Peak District for the last two days, I have to say I am staggered with the results. It's love at first sight.


I am going to continue shooting infrared imagery alongside my Canon 1Ds MkIII over the whole of my Autumnal shoot across northern England, so I can provide comparative images for a lengthy review of the concept, the conversion service and infrared mindset, should you wish to undertake it yourself. I don't expect many people to find infrared to be that compelling to be honest, as just like moonlight photography it develops what the eye cannot see, dividing the audience accordingly.

A few technicalities; firstly the camera still records images in RGB, but on the back screen everything looks very red. The camera's metering is a little confused and needs underexposing to stop the red channel from clipping. Images respond extremely well to polarisation too, as all these examples show. Although making rather wacky looking colour images is possible, I do find that they tend to look like a crazy session with Photoshop, so I am yet to find suitable situations for this concept. All the conversions have been done in Lightroom so far, as the Photoshop B&W filter doesn't seem to help.


There is another image over in the new infrared gallery in my portfolio page: David Clapp.

Both shots were taken on the Canon 5DIR, with a Contax 35-70mm f3.4, f/11 1/30th sec, ISO100.

Keep checking ePz for David's full review of his Canon 5D infrared camera.