First steps in infrared photography
Like many photographers, the Summer is not my favourite time for landscape photography. I find it hard to get inspired and I'm not sure I fully understand why. I do know there are multiple influences including the long days/short nights and what I see as a lack of drama, mystery or interest in the landscape - I perceive it as safe, as tame and thus uninteresting.
Last year the profile of Infrared photography was raised in the media by multiple YouTube influencers and this got me thinking about my summertime doldrums! When Fujifilm released the GFX100s I moved from Canon to Fujifilm for my landscape work. This left a range of perfectly good Canon gear unused. Rather than sell, I decided to keep everything and actually acquired an EOS 1DX Mk3 from Harrison Cameras but that is another story.
The Ridgeway
Returning to the subject, I had an unused Canon EOS 5D Mk2 converted for Infrared (720nm) by Protech Repairs. At the time they had a large backlog so it was almost Autumn by the time it was returned and I was then focused on Autumn woodland photography. It's now summer 2023 and I've started to explore the world in Infrared.
What I have learnt so far is that the 720nm filter needs strong sunlight - something associated with summertime - and that the results are like contrasty black/white images. The key to understanding infrared photography is that objects that don't reflect infrared light appear black, objects that fully reflect infrared appear white and objects that partially reflect infrared appear as different greys depending on the amount they reflect.
My first few attempts didn't deliver much as I now realise I was thinking in terms of visible light but more recent attempts have, I feel, been more successful and those images are presented herein. They were made at the world heritage site of Avebury or close by on the Ridgeway - an ancient track that crosses the county of Wiltshire.
Avebury used to have two Avenues of Neolithic standing stones leading from the main complex, one to the West and one to the South. The Western Avenue, for the most part, was robbed of its stones in antiquity but approximately 800 metres of the Southern, West Kennet Avenue remains almost intact. The Avenues are interesting as the builders selected stones on opposing sides to be different shapes. Thus its common to see a large rectangular stone paired with a smaller, simpler-shaped stone. The stones have stood for several thousand years and many show signs of weathering with pock-marked surfaces and areas of lichen.
West Kennet Avenue, Avebury
Having photographed the stones in colour and black/white visible light I was interested to see how the shapes and textures of the stones worked at infrared wavelengths. The day on which these images were made started with cloudless skies but by early afternoon clouds had gathered. I was hoping for a cloudless sky so as to make contrasty images - a totally clear sky does not reflect infrared light. So I was a little disappointed and frustrated by the cloud believing it would add too much white in the sky. However, with hind-sight, I now think the clouds interesting as they give a sense of drama to the sky.
Clouds aside, the other challenge I had was with lens choice. My favourite EOS lenses are both primes, a 21mm Zeiss and a 50mm Sigma. Both are very sharp and give excellent results - in the visible spectrum. Unfortunately, at infrared wavelengths both have noticeable 'hot spots' - an area of brightness - in the centre on the image. The 'hot spots' are not awful and they don't mean the lenses can't be used for infrared but extra work is needed in post-processing. Fortunately I also have Canon 16-35mm and 24-70mm L series zooms and these don't appear to suffer with hot spots. So I'm now mainly using those for infrared photography.
How do I feel about these images and infrared in general? Pretty positive. I avoid making images with overly boosted contrast, colour saturation etc as I feel they are an attempt to mislead the viewer, an attempt to convey something as more interesting than it really was. However, with infrared images its obvious to a viewer that they are not an attempt to convey reality, what we might see, and thus there is no sense that the viewer is being misled. Right now, infrared photography feels like it will be good for the summer months and thus something to fill the doldrums; it's also new and interesting. I'm now on the hunt for good subjects....
Andy
All images are copyright Andy Gawthrope Photography.
