Infrared Photography a journey in colors and light

If you read any of my stuff, you will know that I have always loved Infrared Photography. Even before I tried to stand it at all. I started out just getting 720nm Filter and putting it on my Olympus E 420. The shots were frustrating and I generally had to take super long exposures with an outcome of RED bleh photos.

They may not be so bleh, but I had no understanding at all about what 'white' balance was or even a light spectrum. All I knew is that I could produce some other-worldly photos. These are the first tries.

The exposures were something along 30 seconds or more and the photos started out as Beet Red. If I used a Nikon camera, I couldn't even be sure of the focus as the filter was SO dark!

Still, I would keep trying. I'd put the filter away and do other things. Then try some more. I wasn't exactly happy with all of it, but I felt that I could learn.

I generally carried the 720nm filter with me anyway. The shot below is a full 2 minute exposure. 

It would take me another 2 years to decide to purchase a Full Spectrum Point and Shoot Infrared camera.

There are companies that will take a normal camera and take out the filter that blocks Infrared light.

I decided to try one. A Canon ELPH 180 with 3 IR filters. I then decided to try to understand things called False Color and Channel Swapping. Most of the programs I had didn't do well with it. Below is one of my first attempts at making something with the tiny camera.

I really didn't know much of what I was doing, but I was still fascinated with the oddity of the photos.

The adventures I took were fun and many of the photos became black and white edits because the colors were just too strange for my tastes.

Then I took my old Olympus camera that had some issues and sent it in to have a full spectrum conversion. What does that even mean? It means that a filter added to the front of the lens can see in different light spectrums. I chose a 550nm, a 665nm, a 720nm, and an 850nm. I find the 850nm fun but it is strictly only to shoot in black and white.

From what I understand we only see a small spectrum of light. Bugs, may see slightly different than us and perhaps some animals do too.

The chart above shows our visible 'light'. Really, I am not one to explain it at all.
However I know that the 550nm filter gives me a very strange photo to start with.

The colors are odd and strange right out of the camera. I see most people edit this with a red foliage in a channel swap. I got something much different in my edit. I can't explain it. That sickly yellow became a blue with the Green Hue after a Channel Swap.

Confused yet? Don't be. I went even further just to make tiny adjustments to the colors that were available to me. Green produced blue skies.
Yellow added more oddness to the blue sky. Orange pushed to the max produced a purplish color.
And so forth. 

Nothing made common sense but the more I experimented, the more fun I had.
But the result was quite interesting:

Maybe it isn't your thing, but I found it fascinating.
Being able to use a light spectrum to see the world as my child self had once seen it was the absolute bomb! 
The sky did not have to be one color. Leaves could be purple, green, and pink. Infrared has made my inner child happy.

Below is a straight out of the camera shot with a 665nm Filter.

Below:
I liked the orangish colored sky. Was is fantasy or Apocalyptic?

And then the Channel Swap that is proper with this filter next:
Pretty enough and odd enough, but I liked the above version much better.

I am glad I sent in the Olympus OMD EM5. Now the poor thing's LCD screen turns green and sometimes I can't get it to properly expose shots.
I can use program mode and sometimes manual mode. But the camera has a bit of its own mind lately. That has made some of this year's photography a bit more interesting.

The last filter I will talk about is the IRChrome filter. Exactly how it works? I have no idea except that it allows me a huge leeway with colors.

Last thoughts. 
Winter is coming and that means less light reflection because the trees will have lost their leaves. 
However, I wonder what I can do with winter?

I didn't have much luck last year, however I am willing to approach it again this year.

I am always going to be learning and experimenting. 
Oh and I will have to replace the Oly EM5. After all, it is 8 yrs old and has been beaten relentlessly by me carrying it around since day one in all sorts of weather.

Tsk..tsk. In December I'll probably send in its replacement to be converted to full spectrum. 

I love light and colors in a different spectrum!