A look at IR photography and its potential in the microstock agencies

1. INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY
AND MICROSTOCK
by Laurent Dambies
April 2009
http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com

2. HOW DOES IT WORK ?
 Visible light: 400-700 nm, near infrared 700-1200 nm. Above : mid infrared and
far infrared (thermal imagery)
 IR filter : block most of the visible light and let near infrared hit the CCD.

3. WHY INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY?
 Gives a dramatic, surreal effect, an ethereal white glow to the pictures
 Foliage and grass reflect infrared radiations and appear much brighter in IR
Different foliages have different IR reflectance as well as foliage affected by
disease or insect infestation.
 Blue sky and water appear dark.
 Depending on the light, textures can be revealed in more details.
 Skin also can give interesting tones.

4. CHALLENGES IN IR PHOTOGRAPHY
Focusing and depth of field
 Visible vs IR: different focus distance:  tricky to produce
sharp images 
 If no lens with IR marking
 Focus bracketing
 Hyperfocal distance
Exposure
 IR filter very dark  indications given by the camera cannot be trusted 
 Typically 2 to 15 seconds exposure time  Tripod
 Long exposure  interesting results on water and clouds 

5. Equipment
 Variable results depending on body and lenses
 blocking IR filter (hot mirror) on top of CCD’s  cameras more on less
sensitive to IR. The hot mirror can be removed to make a true IR camera (or check
on Ebay).
 Flares or hotspots on some lenses 

6. My gear
Canon Powershot G9
Lensmate lens adapter
Hoya R72 filter 58 mm
Hoya ND4 filter 58 mm
Small tripod
 Universal IR Hoya R72 filter: 50% cutoff 720 nm  some visible light get throught

7. CANON G9 SETTINGS
 RAW @ 80 ISO, hyperfocale distance
 Excellent tutorial here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/545326@N21/discuss/72157603843667732/

8. MY 10 STEPS WORFLOW
Open Raw with LR2
Set color temperature 2000, tint -50
Remove noise Luminance 60
Chromatic aberration : all edges
Export as jpeg or tiff
Open in CS3 swap red and blue channels: red 0 blue 100, blue 0, red 100
Image--> adjustements levels blue and green
Image ---> curves define gray point
Import in LR2 adjust hue/saturation on the different channels.
Export as jpeg

9. IR PHOTOGRAPHY AND MICROSTOCK
Agency Infrared + landscape Infrared + building
Shutterstock 526 106
Istockphoto 140 45
Dreamstime 540 124
Search done on April 09th 2009
 Pictures difficult to be approved due to noise and softness
 Some success on Shutterstock and Dreamstime

10. FLICKR GROUPS DEDICATED TO IR PHOTOGRAPHY
Digital infrared: http://www.flickr.com/groups/55027594@N00/
Infrared: http://www.flickr.com/groups/infrared/
Canon G9 infrared: http://www.flickr.com/groups/545326@N21/
Infrared UK&Ireland: http://www.flickr.com/groups/infrareduk/
Infrared panoramas : http://www.flickr.com/groups/898089@N25/
Infrared Scotland : http://www.flickr.com/groups/infrared-scotland/
HDR infrared: http://www.flickr.com/groups/92588351@N00/
Converted digital infrared cameras: http://www.flickr.com/groups/lifepixel/

11. FURTHER READING
http://dpfwiw.com/ir.htm A lot of detailled informations and links about IR photography
http://www.lifepixel.com/index.html Services and tips about converting your camera to
Infrared
Joe Farrace. Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography. Lark Books, 2006, 160p.
My BLOG ! http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com
My FliCkR photostream ! http://www.flickr.com/ldambies
If you have some noise free stock pictures and want to sell them fast
I recommend Shutterstock for a start: Submit Photos to Shutterstock
and make $$$!
Another agency is Fotolia: Fotolia

12. WELCOME TO MY IR WORLD 

13. Lonely tree

14. Infrared machines

15. Infrared machine

16. N Necropolis Glasgow

17. Science center Glasgow

18. Bell bridge and SECC Glasgow

19. Glasgow Clyde river quayside

20. Edinburgh panorama