This document discusses infrared photography and its potential for microstock photography. Infrared photography captures wavelengths just beyond the visible spectrum, producing surreal white glow effects in foliage and textures. It poses challenges like inaccurate exposure readings and different focus distances. The document provides tips on equipment like IR filters, recommended camera settings, and post-processing steps. Infrared landscape and building photos have some success being approved on microstock sites like Shutterstock and Dreamstime, though noise and softness can be issues. Resources are provided for learning more about infrared photography.

1. INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY
AND MICROSTOCK
by Laurent Dambies
April 2009
http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com

2. HOW DOES IT WORK ?
 Visible light: 400-700 nm, near infrared 700-1200 nm. Above : mid infrared and
far infrared (thermal imagery)
 IR filter : block most of the visible light and let near infrared hit the CCD.

3. WHY INFRARED PHOTOGRAPHY?
 Gives a dramatic, surreal effect, an ethereal white glow to the pictures
 Foliage and grass reflect infrared radiations and appear much brighter in IR
Different foliages have different IR reflectance as well as foliage affected by
disease or insect infestation.
 Blue sky and water appear dark.
 Depending on the light, textures can be revealed in more details.
 Skin also can give interesting tones.

4. CHALLENGES IN IR PHOTOGRAPHY
Focusing and depth of field
 Visible vs IR: different focus distance:  tricky to produce
sharp images 
 If no lens with IR marking
 Focus bracketing
 Hyperfocal distance
Exposure
 IR filter very dark  indications given by the camera cannot be trusted 
 Typically 2 to 15 seconds exposure time  Tripod
 Long exposure  interesting results on water and clouds 

5. Equipment
 Variable results depending on body and lenses
 blocking IR filter (hot mirror) on top of CCD’s  cameras more on less
sensitive to IR. The hot mirror can be removed to make a true IR camera (or check
on Ebay).
 Flares or hotspots on some lenses 

6. My gear
Canon Powershot G9
Lensmate lens adapter
Hoya R72 filter 58 mm
Hoya ND4 filter 58 mm
Small tripod
 Universal IR Hoya R72 filter: 50% cutoff 720 nm  some visible light get throught

7. CANON G9 SETTINGS
 RAW @ 80 ISO, hyperfocale distance
 Excellent tutorial here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/545326@N21/discuss/72157603843667732/

8. MY 10 STEPS WORFLOW
Open Raw with LR2
Set color temperature 2000, tint -50
Remove noise Luminance 60
Chromatic aberration : all edges
Export as jpeg or tiff
Open in CS3 swap red and blue channels: red 0 blue 100, blue 0, red 100
Image--> adjustements levels blue and green
Image ---> curves define gray point
Import in LR2 adjust hue/saturation on the different channels.
Export as jpeg

9. IR PHOTOGRAPHY AND MICROSTOCK
Agency Infrared + landscape Infrared + building
Shutterstock 526 106
Istockphoto 140 45
Dreamstime 540 124
Search done on April 09th 2009
 Pictures difficult to be approved due to noise and softness
 Some success on Shutterstock and Dreamstime

10. FLICKR GROUPS DEDICATED TO IR PHOTOGRAPHY
Digital infrared: http://www.flickr.com/groups/55027594@N00/
Infrared: http://www.flickr.com/groups/infrared/
Canon G9 infrared: http://www.flickr.com/groups/545326@N21/
Infrared UK&Ireland: http://www.flickr.com/groups/infrareduk/
Infrared panoramas : http://www.flickr.com/groups/898089@N25/
Infrared Scotland : http://www.flickr.com/groups/infrared-scotland/
HDR infrared: http://www.flickr.com/groups/92588351@N00/
Converted digital infrared cameras: http://www.flickr.com/groups/lifepixel/

11. FURTHER READING
http://dpfwiw.com/ir.htm A lot of detailled informations and links about IR photography
http://www.lifepixel.com/index.html Services and tips about converting your camera to
Infrared
Joe Farrace. Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography. Lark Books, 2006, 160p.
My BLOG ! http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com
My FliCkR photostream ! http://www.flickr.com/ldambies
If you have some noise free stock pictures and want to sell them fast
I recommend Shutterstock for a start: Submit Photos to Shutterstock
and make $$$!
Another agency is Fotolia: Fotolia

12. WELCOME TO MY IR WORLD 

13. Lonely tree

14. Infrared machines

15. Infrared machine

16. N Necropolis Glasgow

17. Science center Glasgow

18. Bell bridge and SECC Glasgow

19. Glasgow Clyde river quayside

20. Edinburgh panorama