Summer at Notre Dame has a lot going for it. First, it’s not winter, second, the lines at Subway and Starbucks are a lot shorter, and third…did I mention it’s not winter? But summer is also, in my opinion the least photogenic season on campus. The trees are all thick and exactly the same color, giving a solid canopy of green with inky dark shadows underneath. Oh, the trials of being a photographer, right?
But all that vegetation really lends itself to infrared (IR) photography.
Let me be quick to admit my utter lack of scientific knowledge of infrared light. (Hey, I was an Arts & Letters major!) In high school my photography teacher suggested I try shooting with infrared film and I though it was pretty cool. And it turns out digital cameras are actually quite sensitive to infrared light, and come from the factory with infrared-blocking filters over the imaging chip. Remove the sensor and presto, you’re shooting infrared!
Now that’s not as easy as it sounds–you have to send the camera to a facility that specializes in removing the IR filter. That’s right, you have to pay someone to ruin your camera.
A few years back I bought a cheap point-and-shoot camera with the idea of converting it to IR. It was summer, and I was curious to see campus in the IR wavelength. Wow. The shadows weren’t shadows anymore…the trees had texture once again…it was odd-looking to be sure, but in a cool way, I thought.
One morning I stopped by some campus landmarks with a tripod onto which I’d put my normal camera with my IR camera clamped right next to it, so I could make two versions of the same scene for comparison.
Here are three quick highlights, for a larger gallery–including ND Stadium in IR–check it out here: http://notredame.photoshelter.com/gallery-slideshow/G0000hJ8.FY7EM24/C0000vECNsCcal94?start=
Matt Cashore
The Main Building in visible light
Main Building IR
Jesus Statue on Main Quad, visible light
Jesus Statue IR
Path from University Village, visible light
Path IR
IR pictures taken using cameras with silicon glass lenses and focal planes can extend the spectrum from 0.7 to about 1.5 microns (wavelength of light – visible light goes from 0.4 to 0.7 microns). It would be interesting to take the same pictures in the mid wave ((3.0 – 5.0 microns) IR or longwave IR (8.0 – 12.0 microns) if you can get your hands on the right equipment.
Did you retain the camera’s color data, or are these desaturated images that have had a cooling effect applied?
Also, have you considered doing UV photography? Check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_photography
Lovely photos….
I used http://www.lifepixel.com/ for the IR conversion. They have several options for what wavelength of light, etc., but I just went with the most popular option at the time. Using a preset white balance and exposure mode on the camera gave me the blue-ish look. I liked it so I stuck with it. I didn’t really do any toning to the IR photos.
Thanks for commenting!