アウトフォーカス Film Photography Techniques Infrared Film Techniques I have been experimenting with infra-
red photography with the Efke IR820 Aura and Ilford SFX200 films. If you start looking into IR photography it can be a bit confusing at first. Googling the film name will probably yield lots of unexpected questions in forums and even more, seemingly, conflicting answers to these questions. While getting into infrared photography myself, I started to make sense of it slowly and wrote down my findings below; I hope that it helps you to get started too.
• •
•
off the back of the camera. This film is also sold under the name Maco IR820c Precision Infrared film. Unfortunately, this film is not available anymore after the Fotokemika factory in Croatia shut down. Rollei Infrared IR400 Ilford SFX200 film which isn’t a true infrared film but does have some extended sensitivity to infrared up to 740nm. Rollei Retro 80S is also red sensitive to 750nm which puts it in the same class as the Ilford SFX200 film.
sensitive film without any filter, you can expect a normal black and white photo. Some people recommend a normal red filter, like the 25A as is used in black and white photography, but I would recommend buying one of the special infrared filters like the Hoya R72 or the IR-720 filter to maximize the effect. Both filters block all wavelengths shorter than 720nm to only let the infrared light through. The problem is that the filter will appear opaque to the eye so you will need to do all focussing before putting the filter on the lens. I usually focus, put the lens in manual focus mode if it is an auto focus lens and proceed by putting the filter in front of the lens. Ilford does make the Ilford SFX200 filter available but I didn’t have good results with that filter in combination with the Ilford SFX200 film, the results I got with SFX200 film in combination with a Hoya R72 filter were much better. There are other, stronger infrared filters available, but do make sure that the filter still passes through light for which the film you are using is sensitive, or else you will end up with no image. Smile
Exposure
As the result of an infrared photo is quite unpredictable and you cannot chimp on an SLR, I would certainly recommend bracketing each shot at least +1 and -1 stop.
Infrared films
At the moment of writing, I think only two infrared films are available and several more films that have extended sensitivity to red: • Efke IR820 available in normal and AURA versions. The latter doesn’t have an anti-halation layer and can create some interesting effects when the light reflects
• •
Ilford Delta 3200 The popular Kodak HIE film has been discontinued in 2008, unfortunately.
Filters
The use of a filter is required to bring out the sensitivity of the film to red light. If you were to use an infrared
As the filters usually recommended with infrared film are blocking out so much light, the exposure needs to be corrected. For example the filter factor for the Hoya R72 filter is 16 which translates into 4 stops. If you are using an external light meter or would like to use the TTL lightmeter on your camera before putting