MY INFRARED PAGE

I have been shooting IR film for about a year now and have had great results in the past
year using these techniques. I found alot of this info off rec.darkroom, deja news.and
through trial and error. Amazingly not too much of the latter due to alot of the former!

KODAK HIE IR FILM

This stuff is a little tricky but don't be scared, just careful. It must be loaded in TOTAL darkness. Have read that IR can leak through blocked windows so I would load the night before shooting to eliminate this possibility if you have windows in your darkroom or to make it easier to "darken" a room. Keep in can and refrigerated-frozen until ready to load. Don't let it get hot at any time either in or out of the camera. I have left in camera several days while shooting so this isn't a problem. It gets fogged while loading-unloading. That all there is to this.

On shooting I prefer the meterless method and feel that camera meters don't see IR and so meter is fooled. I hear about people saying to bracket wildly and I have no such problems. I always shoot in bright sun when there are nice puffy clouds, shoot with sun behind me and try to avoid shadows in pictures as there isn't much IR in the shade. You need a red 25 filter and set camera to manual. I shoot one exposure at 1/125 @ f11 and another at 1/250 @ f11. One or the other always looks good. Don't shoot on real cloudy days as there isn't much IR and pictures will look too "normal". Lots of blue sky and distinct clouds works really well. Also have read that dimpled pressure plates will cause problems (olympus,minolta) but I have blown up 35mm negs to 16X20 prints from my olympus OM-1 and see no such effect. This film does not have anti haliation backing so can see how it could happen but I have never seen it. Can't imagine as grainy as this film is, that you could see it even if it was there. Some camera's use IR to count sprocket holes on film so these will not work as it would fog the film. Use IR focus mark or slightly short focus. I usually use a 28mm lens, so depth of field takes care of any errors. Have also read that it's better to use lenses that have the fewest pieces of glass possible, so I use my 28mm f3.5 instead of my 28mm 2.0 for this reason but never tested this out. Makes sense that glass absorbs some of the IR. Also not sure how multiple element zooms will work as I own none. Simple to shoot when you know the basics.

On developing, I use D-76 stock solution for 11 min. @ 68 deg F. I use a plastic patterson tank and have had no fogging daylight developing it but not sure how IR proof other plastic tanks are. Otherwise same as any other.

This is basically it and should be enough to get you started. If anyone has any further information/tips feel free to e-mail me. I'm sure there is alot more for me to learn but this technique worked for me from the very first roll!

KONICA 750NM IR FILM

This film is alot easier to work with, has ultra fine grain, doesn't go as far into IR and still has the effect, but is painfully slow. You HAVE to use a tripod. But for alot of things it is starting to become my favorite film. You can load in subdued light without fogging and probably isn't as heat sensitive. Also is available in 120 roll film.

On shooting this film, I once again don't use a meter. I shoot it at 1/4 and 1/2 sec. @ f22 using a red 25 filter. I shoot alot of this film with my super graphic and never had a problem with film holder/bellows leaking IR and fogging film. I usually don't bother with focus shift, as this film isn't going that far into IR range and I'm shooting at f22. I shoot it in same conditions as with the kodak IR film and shooting this film isn't much different than regular B&W. You can also shoot without red filter and get "normal" B&W pictures if you want to.

On developing, this is where I had problems. Every developer I tried for a long time gave me negs that were too contrasty to print well. Some even seemed to chemically "fog" the film. Finally some one suggested rodinal 1:75 for 9 min. @ 68 deg. F and that was the fix. This film is so fine grained that rodinal's inherent grainy nature isn't a problem. Be careful with timing as I tried 9 1/2 and 8 1/2 and there is a big difference. This film is sensitive to developers. Otherwise process the same as normal B&W film.

Like I said this is one of my favorite films and rivals APX 25 for lack of grain. Only down side is the real slow speed but any real fine grain B&W film is real slow. You can play with 25 or 29 filter as the later gives a little more IR look to the pictures. I kinda like the 25 better as they don't look "TOO" IR, just enough to look different. As I said in the Kodak section, any info/tips please feel free to e-mail me. This is one great film!

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