infared advice needed!

[bearexposures]

hi all,
about to embark down the infared film path, i have read as much as i can about it and the use of red or yellow filters, load and unload in a dark-bag etc, but that does not match speaking to anyone who has actually used it with an x-pan2. i am planning to use both mono and color, is there any advice out there you can offer.
many thanks...happy snapping,
nick

 

[Flinor]

Nick, I've never shot color and I don't have an Xpan but I've shot a lot of HIE through a number of Leicas, a CLE and a Hexar AF. The hexar was by far the easiest because of the built in focus correction and the auto bracketing. On the others, with a 25 red filter on a bright sunny day, I got my best results ignoring my meter and shooting at 1/125th at f11. Bracket 1/2 stop on either side and don'y forget to adjust focus. I hope your lenses have the IR mark because if they don't forget critical focus and rely on depth of field. And yes, ;oad and unload in total darkness.

 

[Dracotype]

Flinor's advice is a good starting point, and I would second his advice. With a 50mm lens, the focusing correction is fairly small, but I would try and keep your apertures above f 5.6 if possible. Exposure is tricky, and yes, bracket. HIE is nominally ISO 400, but a half stop either side of this is good as well.

Drew

 

[jlw]

Color IR film doesn't need to be unloaded in total darkness, and I don't think the non-Kodak b&w films do either.

Kodak High-Speed Infrared does need to be loaded in darkness, but that's not particularly because it's infrared; the reason is that it doesn't have any anti-halation dye incorporated into the film base (which partly accounts for the cool effects.) Since the base isn't dyed, "light piping" (light entering the cut end of the film and bouncing along down the clear base, just like a fiber-optic light pipe, thus fogging the film) is a significant possibility.

 

[Jmiothy]

I use Rollei IR red film which is made by Maco. I use this with an 89B filter and rate it at 25ISO. Bracketing 1 stop either side of "correct" exposure is essential. With norm al or wide lenses and a fairly small aperture critical focus is not essential as you have enough dof to get a sharp enough image.

Rollei film doesn't need to be loaded in total darkness, but subduded light is essential - this makes life easier with loading the camera.

Good look and let us see some results real soon.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

You probably already know this but: Ilford SFX is a 'sort of' IR film.

 

[bearexposures]

hi all,
many thanks... i will post pictures soon, if the weather stays fine i am off the the magical island of mull..fingers crossed.
happy snapping,
nick

 

[Vangoghs_Ear]

Where are our pictures?

 

[sf]

Advice on infrared :

1. Know that weather is much more of a factor in exposure than shutterspeed. 1/100 on a cloudy day is nothing close to 1/100th on a sunny day, even if your meter says so.

2. Bracket like crazy. I shot 3-6 shots of each frame I wanted.

3. Blow a couple rolls just to get your metering and development in place. If you do your own souping, this will be a tricky business. Was for me. Maybe easier for more common IR films - I was using Rollei IR400.

4. Make sure to focus properly. Many times, I would spend 5 minutes metering the scene and then forget to focus properly. Shooting at f/32 made this less of a problem, though.

5. Shoot with the appropriate filters on. It makes an enormous difference even between deep red and "opaque". Of course.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=36462&cat=500&ppuser=2147
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=36461&cat=500&ppuser=2147

 

[bearexposures]

hi, many thanks for advice tips, i am currently awaiting both kodak and rollei film to arrive but also the sunny days stopped for a while but this week is looking good.

-happy snapping
nick

my website - http://www.cromart.co.uk

 

[schaubild]

Be aware that the Rollei needs stronger overexposure (and/or filtering) to get the typical wood effect, very different to the Kodak. But on the other side you'll get much finer grain and significantly less critical handling.

It'll come down to personal preferences, the films have very distinct looks.

 

[kaiyen]

Schaubild - you just mean that the rollei film is a LOT slower, right? It's not overexposure, it's just correct exposure for a different film 🙂

allan

 

[schaubild]

The Rollei is actually faster (ISO 400), but not as IR sensitive as the Kodak.

To emphasize the wood effect some overexposure (1 stop) is the way to go.
But even then it won't show the aura effects of the Kodak.

 

[kaiyen]

Schaubild,
HIE is easily 400 in terms of IR sensitivity. Where are you getting the impression that the rollei is faster?

And do you mean overexposure compared to what? From 400? From actual EI based on testing?

And exposure has nothing to do with the aura effect of HIE. It's the lack of an anti-halation backing.

allan

 

[sf]

Schaubild,
HIE is easily 400 in terms of IR sensitivity. Where are you getting the impression that the rollei is faster?

And do you mean overexposure compared to what? From 400? From actual EI based on testing?

And exposure has nothing to do with the aura effect of HIE. It's the lack of an anti-halation backing.

allan

major issue here is that the IR400 Rollei is far less IR sensitive than the HIE. The HIE has at least 150nm on the Rollei, and this makes it a more sensitive film. It also means you can shoot HIE without quite as dark a filter as with the Rollei. The HIE actually isn't as pan-chromatic as the Rollei either. It has a strong sensitivity that hovers around the red - the Rollei is pretty even across the spectrum with extended range into IR.

HIE is a true IR film, Rollei IR400 is merely an extended sensitivity film.

 

[kaiyen]

Actually, HIE is not a "true" IR film. Infared starts at 1400nm, not 900. HIE is still near-IR.

I know that HIE is more sensitive to IR than the Rollei film, even at 820nm (the spectral response falls off quite steeply at 820, if I remember). My point is more that it's not so much that Rollei needs more exposure, it's that it's slower. I mean, of course they are related to the point of being the same, and it is semantics in a way, I acknowledge.

But the real goal should be to figure out the "speed" of the Rollei film for a particular situation (or different situations), and then expose "properly" for that speed. Trusting that the Rollei is actually a 400 speed, then saying it needs more exposure would be like saying Pan F plus is a 100 speed, but it needs 1 more stop of exposure.

allan