Digital Infrared Photography Photo Workshop

Chapter 2. VISUALIZING AND CAPTURING IR IMAGES

IR photography can give you a new outlet for artistic expression by allowing you to shoot traditional subjects in novel and interesting ways. When you shoot IR, you employ many of the same techniques and skills you use with color photography, though the IR image looks much different.

In this chapter, I cover the important setup steps to take to get the best possible in-camera exposure — along with techniques that will expand your creativity.

I discuss the various settings, shooting modes, and file formats that you can choose when using an IR-converted camera, or an IR filter on a digital camera. I cover white balance and how it relates to IR photographs. Unlike standard color photography, you will see how shooting midday can give you dramatic results (see 2-1).

In this chapter, you will learn how to fine-tune an exposure and the pros and cons of shooting in RAW or JPEG. I also cover the all-important histogram on your camera's LCD screen, and show you how to use the histogram's information to your advantage.

You can create beautiful images in IR with an IR-converted digital camera or by using an IR filter on the lens.

COMPARING RAW AND JPEG FILE FORMATS

Depending on your camera, you may have the option of choosing which image file format to use for recording your photographs. Shooting in the RAW format simply means that your image is unprocessed data, or "uncooked." No data is discarded from the image with RAW as it is with JPEGs. Using RAW, ...