Infrared Adventures Part I

I picked up a new toy this week! It's a Kolari Pocket Full Spectrum Camera!

Full spectrum means that it's been converted to capture not just visible light, but infrared and ultraviolet light as well.

I was reading an article in Outdoor Photographer Magazine the other week, and I came across an article about an outdoor photographer who shoots travel and adventures photos in infrared. The images looked amazing - really otherworldly and fantastical. I immediately became curious about IR photography, but found out that it took either really specialized equipment or sacrificing an old DSLR camera for a full-spectrum conversion (a process involving opening up the camera and removing the IR filter in front of the sensor). 

While browsing around the internet, though, I came across a company called Kolari Vision which offers the very cheapest way to get into IR and full spectrum photography. They sell a tiny little camera called the Kolari Pocket, which is a modified virion of the Canon ELPH 180, probably the cheapest point-and-shoot on the market right now. By converting such a cheap pocket camera, the company makes it possible for people who are interested in trying IR photography to get into the hobby without spending a ton of money up front.

My tiny little camera came in the mail this week, and while I haven't really had much of a chance to try it out, I've shot a few photos from my balcony at my apartment. I'm excited to take it on my travels!

The camera came with four lenses, and I'm waiting on three more to arrive (they were backordered, hence this is just part 1 of this series). I'll show you those when they get here.

I'll show what a few of these infrared filters can do with a little demonstration of a series of photos from my apartment building in Bangkok.

Hot Mirror Filter

The first filter that the camera came with is called the "hot mirror". Essentially, it's an external filter of the piece that the company originally removed in order to convert the camera to full spectrum. Using this filter basically makes the camera take "normal" photos. I don't think I'll ever really use this filter much, as I have a better DSLR and even my phone takes perfectly fine photos. The point of the Kolari Pocket is to capture infrared. Anyway, I suppose it's good to have the hot mirror just in  case.

In any case, you can see what the view out my balcony window looks like before I demonstrate the various other filters that I have.

590nm Filter

The first filter that I have, and one that I'm quite excited about, is the 590nm (nanometer) "ultra color" filter. It lets in infrared light, of course, but also lets in a good deal of visible light too, meaning that the camera can take really spectacularly colored photos.

You do have to "channel swap" the red and blue color channels in postprocessing to get the ultra color, but the results are pretty cool. I'm not so good at this yet, but I've seen some really amazing images people have shot in ultra color. I'm hoping to get better at white balance and exposure in order to create some super cool images in 590.

720nm Filter

Next up in 720nm, the "standard" infrared filter. It lets in the industry standard infrared spectrum to create really sharp black and white pictures. It's possible to pull color out of these pictures as well, making the trees golden and the sky a dark, dark blue, but I haven't found a good way to access that data within the photo yet.

If you channel swap the blue and red channels, you get a fairly subdued image in slightly more realistic colors. The sky is still a dark IR gradient, but trees are a soft golden, and colors look a bit more natural. This is a very "standard" and classic type of IR photo, the same type of photo you can take with a super long exposure with an IR blocking filter on a standard DSLR.

This one is still shot in color, and you can see a little bit of blue in the trees. I could channel swap it to get some color, but it just didn't look as good. I'll need to play around more. Otherwise, 720 looks great in black and white.

IR Chrome Filter

The final filter is the one I'm most excited about. It's called IR Chrome, and it's designed to recreate the legendary (and tragically discontinued) Kodak Aerochrome film. Aerochrome was a stunning infrared film used by the government to identify enemy combatants in the jungles of Vietnam (as it reflected off chlorophyll in bright red, but artificial green remained green). It was also used by the forestry departments and other government agencies, as well as by artists and photographers for stunning otherworldly photos.

The IR Chrome is the most faithful digital recreation of Aerochrome. It requires no postprocessing, but captures natural greens in shades of red and orange, while leaving the blue sky blue.

At first I didn't have the white balance set correctly, but after messing with the settings, the pictures began to look a bit better.

I especially like this photo of the neighborhood canal! I think that the red of the trees and the blue canal water contrast nicely.

This is an awfully boring picture, but it's meant to show something really neat. Notice how the green plant shows up in brilliant red, yet the artificial AstroTurf is still green? It's because of the way that infrared light reflects off of chlorophyll. It doesn't just show green as red. Here you can really see how jungle camouflage would be useless when photographed by IR surveillance cameras. 

So far, IR Chrome is my favorite, purely because of the stunning colors and the lack of a need for postprocessing. I'm hoping to try other photoshoots soon!

I've been a little bored lately, and in a bit of a creative slump. I'm hoping that this cheap little camera will help me to see the world in a new perspective, and will make for some fun and unique photo walks in Bangkok!

I'll be back in a few weeks with three more filters (as soon as they arrive), but you can certainly expect a few more infrared photo walks in the near future.