If it’s spring, it must be Infrared

The web is a curious thing. Post or links that have been long forgotten seem to spring to life at certain times of the year, or so it seems.

In springtime, the rekindled love of infrared photography blooms and the masses search out content in droves to satisfy this need.

I’ve been watching my stats and have seen a huge increase in traffic from websites all around the world where links to my infrared posts and info on the Nikon Coolpix 990 live, some as old as 8 years ago. All those trees getting ready to bud peek the interest in the age old technique and people feel driven to give it a try or perfect what they have done for years.

I sold my 990 years ago and have moved on with many different cameras, finally settling on the Nikon D50 that was modified to be an “ir-only” camera. That is done by removing the IR blocking glass that most if not all digicams have inside them to keep the IR light out, and replacing it with a custom sized IR filter. The huge upside of this is that it will allow you to shoot IR without a tripod.

WHAT you say, make a camera IR only?

Yes, by doing this you can shoot IR at speeds like 1/125th of a second at f4 or so, sometimes higher. It is great to have the freedom to shoot un-stuck to a tripod. I have even tried a Lens baby on it and shot some great artsy IRs that really added to the whole effect.