Bogstad
ir720nm with unconverted Nikon D90
Bogstad gård, Norway
Aug, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This Infrared photo is taken from the gardens surrounding Bogstad Manor, in Oslo, Norway. It's only a short walk away from my childhood home, and I've spent many a day walking around the garden and lovely nature when I need a break from the chaos of everyday life. It's also the perfect place to experiment with infrared, with lots of vegetation and old treas.Time
This was taken around 7 at night, after work. We have long, light evenings in fall, which really helps as the winter darkness is coming soon enough.Lighting
With infrared, you need lots of sunlight, and vegetation helps to make the effect really shine. Infrared photography is about capturing light we don't see, the light from living things. Plants reflect a lot of infrared light and turn white, while the sky absorbs the light and turns really beautifully dark. Broad daylight is a perfect time to shoot infrared photographs, so when the light is not magical enough for regular landscape, it's perfect for infrared.Equipment
I use an unconverted Nikon D90 with a 720nm IR filter. When it comes to IR, the older camera models usually work better, because the newer are better at removing the infrared light. I find that the “cheap” kit lens nikkor 18-55mm vr is perfect for IR, as not all lenses work. Equipment wise, this isn't too bad for your budget. Tripod of course, as my D90 is unconverted, this is a 30 second exposure at f/8 ISO 200 (base for this camera). With IR, I use back button focusing, since my camera is uncoverted, I can see nothing through the viewfinder with it on and I have to unscrew and screw on to focus. Back button focusing makes it easier not to screw up your focus by pressing the shutter without having turned auto focus off first. I also cover up my viewfinder during shooting to avoid light leaks.Inspiration
I love working with infrared, it's a world we can't usually see and it all turns magical. I knew I wanted to photograph and practice more before winter sets in, when the treas still have their leaves. The beautiful gardens at Bogstad with it's crooked old treas, and charming old manor, is the perfect location for finding the outerworldly magic of light. The manor looked perfectly lit, and when I walked up the hill I noticed to hanging branches and I knew there was a picture to be taken there. So after some experimentation with compositions, (when each image takes 30 seconds you get very motivated to work on your composition, another added bonus of infrared photography,) this was the final image.Editing
What have I not done to this image? I'm a photoshop addict, and color switching in infrared also requires some pp. I shoot in raw, and with infrared it's important to have control of the white balance. Have the color temperature as low as you can go in camera and in adobe camera raw I adjust the color balance as low as possible and try the white balance tool to find a perfect tint (I open as smart object, so I can adjust later if needed). In photoshop I use channel mixer, and the basic recipe is on the blue channel switch from 100% blue to 100% red and do the opposite on the red channel, but this may not always give the best results, so I usually play around with the sliders to see what fits best. I use Nik Collection, which is now free, for noise reduction and sharpening, and I use Pro contrast and color contrast range from Color Efex Pro to make the image more defined. And then I just play around with curves, levels and whatnot to find the perfect mix.In my camera bag
In my infrared bag, in addition to camera, filter, lens and the tripod already mentioned, i have a beanbag pillow i love and use a lot instead of the tripod. It's excellent in places where tripods are frowned upon. I also carry extra batteries, a remote and a variety of lens cloths that has the magical ability to disappear when needed.Feedback
If you want to try infrared photography, there are less expensive filters to buy on ebay, with a strength of 720nm or less is easier to start with. Most newer cameras tries to block out the infrared light, as it can have aversive effects on regular images, so expect the exposure times to be long and have a tripod/beanbag and remote. You'll need photoshop or gimp with channel mixer functions if you wish to play around with the colors, but infrared works wonderfully in black and white. If you decide you like the effect, you can always go and buy better filters or get your camera converted later. Lifepixel.com is a wonderful educational resource for all things infrared, from which camera works to lens choices.
