A Foray into IR

I started this blog because I kept reading that an unconverted Canon EOS 5D Mark II either can't be used for IR photography or that the exposures are prohibitively long as a consequence of the very strong IR-blocking prefilter that comes with the camera. These remarks discouraged me from using the camera for IR work until I actually tried it and, to my surprise, found that the camera was both very well suited for long exposures and sensitive enough to even the deep IR to produce very high quality images. In fact, this camera has won awards for its long exposures, making it very well suited to IR photography when you actually want the exposure to be long. I do, so this is a match made in, well, a very enjoyable place.

The image above (and the accompanying 1:1 crop) was taken out of my office window using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II that has not been converted for use with IR, a Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L, a Tiffen #87 IR filter, and an exposure of 90 minutes at f/4.0 and ISO 50. From this point forward, you can assume that all of the IR images presented were taken with this combination of camera and lens as this lens is the only good lens I have on the good list. Two of my other favorite lenses, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 and the Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS produce hot spots, putting them on the bad list. I should also note that liveview cannot be used with the Tiffen #87 because the image is too dark, however I've read elsewhere that liveview can be used with the much more standard Hoya R72, which is really more of a Near IR (NIR) filter than an IR filter as it begins transmitting light at 700 nm, reaches 50% by 720 nm, and 85% at 750 nm. Hopefully I can locate a Hoya R72 at a reasonable price soon.

For the time being, I can safely recommend two different daylight exposures in association with the Tiffen #87: 2 hours at f/4.0 and ISO 50 or 1 hour at f/4.0 and ISO 100. Both of these assume you're shooting with the equipment above at 24mm and will produce sharp, high-quality images from about 10 feet to infinity. Make sure to set the infinity focus exactly at the 24mm IR mark on the lens (the red line extending to the number 24) and enable Long Exposure Noise Reduction in the Custom Functions as this seems to perform better than any hot-pixel correction scheme available in post-processing.