Hi everyone, Azriel Knight here and today I'm going to be shooting on an infrared DSLR.
This is a Pentax K10D that's been converted to infrared.
If you don't know what shooting infrared is like essentially it's a spectrum of light that the eye can't see.
To be honest, I don't know too much about infrared photography.
I do know that the idea is that you take your DSLR, ship it off to a special company and
and they will remove the infrared filter off of the sensor and probably make a couple of
other adjustments, so it can see in the infrared spectrum.
How does one shoot...or how does one follow light that they cannot see?
With film infrared, it's incredibly fussy, the film is super sensitive to light, and
the focus and exposure on the lens is also different.
Luckily with the digital version, you can check your work right away, and make any adjustments that you need.
I got this as a gift about four or five years ago, to be honest I've probably only put about
two hundred frames through, but today I'm finally going to give it a real solid first impression.
On it right now is a Pentax-M 28mm f2.8.
...yes
This is a 1.5x crop factor so we're looking at about 42mm
In addition to the 28mm lens, I'm also going to have a 50mm f1.4, or a 75mm equivalent. (I also bring a 200mm lens)
I'm going to be taking my equipment down to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.
Essentially, it's just a fenced off wild life reserve in the middle of town, and being mid
day in a mid Canadian winter I don't expect it to be that busy.
I'm also mostly going for the scenery, but I haven't excluded the idea that I may encounter
some wildlife.
So, now I just gotta get my gear ready and head on out.
Okay I'm here at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, and it's actually snowing more than I thought it would
but I think that's going to give it a neat effect.
I don't think it's cold enough, or snowing enough to affect a DSLR but who knows I might
end up eating my words.
Um, it's only just below zero, um, about -3C, so I'm not too concerned.
But if I'm out for awhile and the camera feels cold after, I'll uh, I'll acclimatize it before I take the card out.
It's kind of interesting because, infrared tends to make everything grass and plant life
look white, but since it's winter [chuckle] it's white anyway, uhm, I think I'm getting
a few good shots here but I just stepped in, I'm only about five minutes into the sanctuary right now.
Uhm there's some historical significance to this house here, but I can't seem to recall what it is.
[Slips] Oh Jesus!
Well, the suns come out now, and it's really changed the dynamic of the way the light looks
on the camera.
Oop, one thing though, is that not all of the pathways are clear, some of them are sheer
ice like this one.
[Bird Calls]
[Ducks & Geese]
I'm having a lot of fun with that 28mm, but I've switched to the 50 now for the time being.
On the one hand this is quite relaxing....
On the other hand....all I can hear is the constant drone of traffic, not too far away.
[Plane Engine]
Sorta reached the halfway mark of my journey here.
I'm making a circle around the sanctuary,
and now I think I'm going to switch to my 200mm.
I don't really see any issue switching my lenses as long as I do it quickly, but I guess
I wont know until the days over.
I'm finding with the 200mm lens that the focus is a bit off, that's probably due to the fact
that infrared light doesn't reflect in the same way as regular light.
Or maybe the lens is just messed up, who knows.
Maybe it's fine, the LCD screen is small, the camera is old.
Yeah, not too sure what the deal is but I'm not confident in the focus ability of the
200mm lens.
I've pretty much made it back to the start though, so I'm going to head back to the car,
head home, and see how these turned out.
Okay I'm back home now, actually it's the next day, uh, but I've had a chance to review
the photos.
I also think I know why the 200mm lens was out of focus.
Actually I think they were all kinda out of focus.
Not that, uh, it was an issue for most of the day.
The reason being that I had wider angle lenses, and I was working with smaller apertures.
That is like anywhere between f8 and f16 but mostly I shot around f11, so that saved me.
So even though my camera was telling me that the shot was in focus, um, it wasn't actually
in focus, so, just a little back story here I was using manual lenses, however when you
look through the viewfinder and you do have something in focus, a red light will go off.
What I'm thinking now though is that I shouldn't have trusted it.
These old lenses have infrared indicators.
You'll notice that there's a little mark in orange right here.
So if I look through the and this is what my focus ends up being, then I'm supposed
to compensate it by moving it to about here, and I didn't do that.
So even though I had that set back, I still ended up with some great shots, and here are the highlights.
I'm sure some of you out there have way more experience with infrared photography than
I do and I'd love to hear your comments below.
I hope you enjoyed this episode, if you did, please remember to like, share and subscribe,
and until next time, stay classic!