Photography the Digital Way by Peter Gold MPA
If you can remember, way back in the last millenium, people used film to capture images. One of the film choices available was a film able to record the infrared spectrum. It was sensitive to heat and more specifically, living things including grass, trees, people, animal life, etc. Those areas of the image were more exposed and whiter. Rocks, sky, etc. with no living matter, were less exposed and recorded grey to black. If you’ve seen these images, they would certainly leave an impression. I believe the main reason for the existence of this film was for aerial surveillance. The air force could pinpoint enemy force with the film’s ability to detect warm bodies. They now use satellite surveillance to do the same thing so they don’t need the film either.
The drawback to this film was, because it was sensitive to heat, even when it was still in the package, it could still be fogged by surrounding heat. It had to be stored in the freezer. You had to be very careful when you loaded the film into the camera. You had to be careful not to heat up the camera in the sun or with body heat. Another characteristic of the infrared wavelength is that it focuses at a different point than the visible light spectrum. So you had to focus the camera and then apply an adjustment to the focus the sharpen it up. You couldn’t see the correction but it had to be done.
Anyhow, with the digital revolution, comes the simplified version of infrared photography without these stumbling blocks. When you upgrade your older digital SLR camera body or even a point and shoot camera, recycle it and give it a new life. There is now a company in the U.S. called www.LifePixel.com that can convert that old camera to be a dedicated infrared digital camera. Digital cameras normally have a filter built in to filter out all the infrared light. LifePixel removes the filter and resets the focus to record sharp infrared images. The problems with storing and handling infrared film are now in the past. Just the fun of creating fantastic infrared images remains and being able to review them instantly.
Go to their website and see the infrared samples on display. If you weren’t sure what an infrared image looked like, I’m sure you’ll recognize the effect once you see it.
Until next month………
Peter Gold MPA
The Camera Store
403.234.9935
