Now that I have my Nikon D800E converted to infrared (big thanks to Ilija at Kolari Vision for an amazing conversion job and Bob Vishneski for inspiration and tips), I am experimenting with some infrared photography when I have a chance. During my last trip to Death Valley, I armed my D800E with a couple of lenses like the Tokina 16-28 f/2.8 and the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G and decided to give IR a try by shooting in various conditions. Along the way, I learned a lot of lessons, some of which were quite painful to deal with during the capture, while others were a shocker after I imported images into Lightroom and tried to post-process them with Photoshop.
First, I had no idea where to start with my white balance settings. No matter what WB I chose, everything looked either too red or too pink/magenta and weird. I ended up manually dialing WB to 2500, which made it look more or less acceptable. Next, I had to deal with severe underexposure in the camera, so I found myself constantly fiddling with the exposure compensation button. In some situations it was just easier to move to manual mode and using the histogram to understand what was going on with my exposure. I also relied on live view occasionally to get my focus right, which was not always an easy thing to do, since everything looked so weird color-wise.
An interesting discovery was the fact that the time of the day did not matter for IR – in fact, beautiful sunrise/sunset moments turned out to be a waste, since none of those colors were preserved in images anyway. I found that harsh mid-day sun was actually more favorable for IR work, since the darker and brighter areas of the image gave a more contrasty look to images.
The big surprise was the nasty hotspots, which I did not think were all that bad when I viewed images on the camera LCD. However, once I imported the RAW files into Lightroom and tried to post-process them with Photoshop, I found most images to be completely unusable. After fiddling for a few hours on different images and getting some help from Bob Vishneski, I realized that the only option was to convert all images to black and white and use Nik Software’s Viveza to reduce brightness in the hot spot areas.
Sadly, the Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 and the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G turned out to be unwise choices for IR photography – both exhibited hot spots. The really bad one was the Tokina, which made some images impossible to deal with, particularly when I stopped the lens down to f/5.6 and smaller. As a result, I ended up converting all images to B&W, which at the end of the day is not too bad, but I still really wanted to get those images with white greenery and blue skies – I guess I will have to find proper lenses that can work with a full-frame IR camera.
Below are images that I converted with a few simple steps in Lightroom and Photoshop. I dialed 2000 Temp and between -70 and -110 Tint in WB, a little bit of tweaking of Highlights and Shadows, between +25 and +50 Clarity and medium Contrast in Lightroom. Next, I opened each image in Photoshop, swapped Red and Blue channels and used Nik Software SilverFX to convert images to black and white (used High Contrast Harsh preset).
Hope you enjoy Death Valley in B&W Infrared!
If you are looking for a good primer on infrared photography, please check out Bob Vishneski’s excellent Introduction to Infrared Photography.
Nasim, stunning photos. Thanks for sharing and for sharing your experience.
I use the Zeiss Loxia 21 and 35 and find they don’t have hot spots. An occasional landscape image will have perhaps a very slightly brighter center, but so subtle I cannot be sure if I even see it on my monitor. Since my converted camera is a cropped sensor the fov is closer to 31 and 52mm FF equivalent, and very useful. I also get good results with the Voigtlander 50 and 65 mm Apo-Lanthar lenses.
By converting a 10 year old Sony Nex-7 which languished in storage I have added only a tiny amount of weight to my bag. The Loxia primes would be in there regardless.
Picking which conversion filter to apply to the sensor is tricky. I chose 590nm so I gain control of luminosities using the B&W sliders in LrC. But I do not import with LrC. Instead I use Capture One Express which has a much broader WB range. I aim to make the sky orange-pink and foliage blue-green. Under bluebird skies this gives excellent color separation of sky vs. land. In the LrC B&W conversion, sky can then be darkened using the orange slider. Here’s an example: photos.app.goo.gl/syhy9JeTV2GcKuJ99 (copy and paste to open as the hyperlink here gets blocked) – Caveat is that the Nex-7 can also set this WB for its jpegs so I can see the same WB on the LCD and EVF, and I have the option of importing these as jpeg and doing a quicker processing.
I’d like to see more discussion of which IR filter to choose for landscape when converting the camera. I have concerns that choosing a filter which allows some visible spectrum, as I have done, may compromise resolution since the broader spectrum probably increases chromatic aberrations. Does anyone have an answer?
Thank you for this very interesting report! I don’t like these artificial looking IR images in colour, so I enjoyed your B & W pictures very much. I work with two converted Nikon IR cameras (D 700 and D7000) with 830 nm filter. To my mind, only B & W IR photography opens up new ways of seeing and imagery. Colored IR photos are like gimmicks. Look at the IR works of great photographers like Jim Brandenburg or Michael “Nick” Nichols: They only shoot in B & W, never in colour.
Concerning suitable Nikon lenses for the 830 nm filter, I get the best results with the 16–35 mm 1:4G ED and the 24–120 mm 1:4G ED VR .
Please have a look at
Thank you!
Hi Nasim,
I am going to Death Valley National Park this year for the second time, and I thought I may be able to improve some of m photo-taking skills. Do you have any recommendations for good places for night photography, or any general advice? Thanks!
Jessie, you have probably missed this post:
photographylife.com/what-…ath-valley
Good luck!
I never knew that you could get such amazing pictures with such clarity when taking them with infrared cameras. This is one of those things that I would love to do when I have more time on my hands. How would a person look in one of these types of pictures?
The reason mid day is best is because what you are actually capturing is photosynthesis. The more the sunlight interacts with the foliage, the more of an effect you are getting. ( www.ShadesOfVanity.com )
Hi Nasim
I have a D300 converted (665nm) and used a lot the
14-24,and the
28-300 !!!! no Hotspot and no Focusshift !
In 2012 i did a list of all Lenses for Nikon i found working in IR
meichelart.wordpress.com/2012/04/
Thanks for Your great articles all the Time
Regards
Klaus
maybe I missed it, but what filter did you use for the b&w conversion – I am guessing a 720NM?
Images shown here are stunning! :D
I always loved to see IR pictures….nevertheless I never have the money to convert a DSLR to IR…maybe one day I would give a shot with IR film.
Is it possible to “mimic” the B&W IR effect in lightroom with a normal color picture?
Tomas from Argentina
I was in Death Valley this past weekend and found The Racetrack so disappointing. My son and I found maybe 4 rocks attached to trails? We hiked a large portion of it, from one side to the next. There were plenty of empty trails, though, where rocks use to be. The weather was beautiful though (74°F days, 35°F nights) with large puffy clouds all over. If I ever go back, I’ll completely skip it (which means no need to bring the gas hog raised truck).
excellent pictures!