Infrared Photography is something my friend Sam introduced me to for the first time around a year ago. It involves blocking the standard spectrum of visible light when a photograph is taken, and only allowing IR light to be captured (near-infrared to be specific instead of far-infrared). Most digital camera’s have IR blockers in them in one way or another, so the camera I used was modified by two friends of mine. The IR blocker was removed, and a few layers of exposed and developed camera film were inserted in place of the IR blocker. (exposed film won’t let visible light pass through.) What makes Infrared photography so unique and attractive has partly to do with the fact that plants absorb and reflect Infrared light in a very different way than they do with visible light.
Broken down just a little more with an example; when light from the sun (or a light bulb) hits my blue t-shirt, all light in the visible spectrum is absorbed by the shirt except blue. The blue part of the light spectrum is reflected, and is the color we end up seeing. Black shirts absorb all colors in the spectrum, and white shirts will reflect all of them (like snow will also do). We can’t see Infrared light, but it still has materials and objects that will reflect or absorb it in a variety of different ways. Foliage (tree leaves and grass) reflect IR light when generally they absorb all light colors but green. A clear blue sky with nothing to absorb or reflect IR light will appear black or very dark, unless it has clouds which don’t absorb IR.
For more information on Infrared Photography and it’s amazing uses, history, and a much more technical explanation of how it all works, Wikipedia has an excellent Infrared Photography article.
Here a few shots from the first batch of IR pictures I took on my lunch break this recent friday.



These Infrared shots were taken at the Scera Park in Orem, UT on June 8th, 2007. The sky was clear blue, the tree’s were green and full, and the grass was just recently cut.
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