Pixiq

Let me say it for the umpteenth time that one of the first things I like to do with any new camera is test its sensitivity to infrared capture. Soon after the Nikon D3100 arrived on my front porch, I charged the battery and went to Barr Lake state park to try the camera with my infrared filter kit. If you read my previous post “Digital Infrared Photography and the Olympus E-5,” you already know that the weather is changing here in Colorado — fast. And to get the maximum IR effect, which features bright-to-white reproduction of chlorophyll in black-and-white images, I was going to have to be lucky. The only thing is that as the leaves change color you lose chlorophyll; that’s the green stuff.

I went to the lake and quickly discovered that all my favorite spots were not going to work as I hoped for this test, so I made test shots in different locations using each of different filters from my IR filter kit.

What’s in my IR filter kit? First, there’s a Singh-Ray I-Ray filter that may just be the best IR filter available. Naturally it’s expensive. I made some shots with it and because of the day and the foliage’s condition (see the above photo) I experienced 25-second exposures at ISO 400 — it’s a dark filter. My second choice is Hoya’s Infrared R72 and it brought down the shutter speed considerably. This is a great filter because it’s inexpensive and works perfectly 90% of the time but not today. Then I reached for the Cokin 007 (89B) that was, for that date and time, the Goldilocks filter.

When I use the Cokin filter, I hold it with my fingers up against the lens instead of using Cokin’s modular filter holder, which for infrared use allows visible light to come in from the sides (because the filter is not flushed with the lens when mounted in the holder) and pollute the image. In this case, I had my wife Mary as an assistant and she held the Cokin 007 flush against the lens.

IR Tip o’ the day: Looking at IR images, OK chimping, on the LCD screen is difficult usually because you’re shooting at a glary time of the day, some around noon. So I look for places where I can park my tripod in the shade to make viewing captured or Live View images easier.

The round filters in the kit are 58mm, except the Cokin 007, which is an A series model, all of which are 67mm wide. All the filters fit in an ($9.95) Adorama Slinger Filter Pouch "A" that holds three 58mm round or three Cokin A Series square filters. Please keep in mind that all three of these filters can produce great looking infrared images on a particular day and time of year, with a particular subject and having all three gives me lots of options, especially when working under tricky conditions like this.