[Leica] Re: Infrared Film

[George Huczek <ghuczek@sk.sympatico.ca>]

At 08:57 PM 10/02/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Howdy, folks. Does anyone have any experiences with this type of film? I
>have a Leica IR filter, very dark glass, almost opaque. Has anyone had
>any luck with any specific film and/or exposures? Had always wanted to
>try infra red film but don't really know where to start. I would be
>grateful for any help on this matter, am more concerned with b+w than
>color.  Thanks!   
>Scott Kercher
>
For starters, try HIE, Kodak High Speed Infrared.  It gives very pronounced
IR effects, with dark water and skies, ghostly flesh, and foliage that
appears white.  Load and unload the film in a changing bag in the filed, or
a darkroom.  The film cassette light trap may leak some IR if you load the
camera in daylight, fogging the film.  Similarly, load the film into your
developing tank in complete darkness.  After shooting the film, keep the
exposed roll sealed in a black lightproof film holder, like the one
supplied with the film.
   A rangefinder camera, like an M, will give you the advantage of being
able to focus (for visible light) with an infrared filter, which is a
definite advantage over using a SLR, since the dark filter passes virtually
no visible light.  For focus correction with infrared light, shoot at f/11
if possible with a wide angle lens to get good DofF, and adjust the point
of focus slightly closer than you would for visible light.  You will have
to use the lens distance scale to make the adjustments on any leica lenses
that do not have the IR focus mark engraved on the lens barrel.  Avoid
using very smaller apertures than f/11 because diffraction becomes rather
severe with the longer wavelengths of IR light.
   There are many websites available which will give you lots of
information on how to use IR films.  Search out detailed information there.
   You will have to do some testing to determine your effective film speed,
and this will only give you a rough starting point, because your light
meter will not give you accurate exposure information for IR light.  Also,
the relative proportion of IR light to visible light will vary depending on
the time of day and the type of lighting.  Prepare to bracket around your
starting point by at least two full stops in either direction, and see what
you get.  Take notes.
   HIE will give nice results with #25, 29, or the darker 8x (87, 88, 89)
filters.  Start with a #25 red, and a film speed of 50, and run some tests.
 You have a wide range of choices of standard developers to use, and you
can find good information on the WWW for development times for different
types of developers.  A few sites also give more technical information,
such as the spectral cutoff points of different types of filters for IR.  A
good place to start, with links to other sites about IR photography, is:
<http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/mainpage.htm>
   For a more subtle IR look, try Ilford SFX 200.  It responds well to the
longer wavelengths of visible light, and does not give the more dramatic,
blown-out look of HIE.  It also gives you a higher effective film speed to
work with.
   If you use medium format, try Konica IR 750 film.  It gives an IR "look"
that falls between the two other types of film mentioned above.  It is my
personal favorite, but is getting harder for me to get in small quantities,
because dealers in Canada are now required to buy it in bulk, and they are
becoming reluctant to stock more of it than they expect they can sell.



 


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[o] -GH