Tech Notes

I thought I'd just jot down a couple of things about the infrared photography that intrigue me:

THE RIG

Same old M3 usually with the 35mm or 28mm lens stopped down. Light red filter (#25). Kodak HIE film. The Leica lens doesn't have infrared marking for focus, though that could be easily determined with a couple of tests and a little bit of tape or something on the lens to mark the spot. So far I haven't worried about the focus shift because I've been shooting with wide angle lenses and I'm usually at F8 or F11. The film is developed in Ilfotec DD-X with the same times I use for Tri-x (- 30 seconds). I load and unload the film in a changing bag which I bring with me. It's a pretty crappy one which I bought from Adorama. Somewhere in the house I have a good one which I once used for loading large format holders but I can't seem to find it.

Meter readings are with the Gossen Luna Pro. If I'm shooting in sunlight it's set to 100 ASA. If I am going to bracket - I'll do one at what the meter reads and one a stop more open.

For street and urban shots that were printed in the darkroom, this film would be difficult to use. There may be numerous blown out areas that might be important to the shot. But with Photoshop (using things like multiply layers, gradient masks etc.) if the effect has gone too far - it can usually be tamed. Jim S. mentioned this to me. I've been doing applying various correction layers since the first test roll. The man in the spiral is an example where I used a multiply layer and a gradient map. Without that the entire shot is blown out.

The shot below this - towards 110th street has been dodged and burned in a way that I couldn't do in the traditional darkroom without resorting to film masking techniques that were once used to adjust contrast in color prints.

THE IMAGINATION

I find that just trying to think in infrared gives my imagination a jolt that it needs. Brain is going: how is this going to show up. Where are the lines? In other words, all the things you should be doing normally - get a bit of a push.

Black and white is already an abstraction and gives you a chance to accentuate the design elements. With infrared the design of the shot can become more minimal. For me - there is a similarity to city snow shots, or night shots - where all of a sudden the crap of the city becomes invisible, the trees and roads and rivers are simplified to a few lines.

There are a few avenues I'm interested in exploring: shooting with tungsten light for example where my tests actually show a higher ASA for the film. I had one crazy idea - using an infrared flash in a movie theater to do audience reactions. Don't know if I'll get to that but I've not seen it done before for pictorial purposes. I think a horror film would be best.

And now I realize I'm procrastinating getting to some matting and packaging by writing this so I'd better get on with it.

Even More IR

Woman in Garden, Central Park




Sitting in Sun (Schurz Park)

I'm still in IR mode. I might be there for a while. More to follow...

Energy Caeser

I've decided to apply for the new post of Energy Caeser. My major plank is going to be that gas prices in our empire should be controlled so that they are steady - and most importantly as high as gas prices in Europe. My theory is that this is the best way to encourage alternative sources of energy and will force what are already global car manufacturing companies to sell the cars they sell in Europe to America.

True - these cars don't have room for DVD players, or even cup holders - but we are an adaptive people and will learn to hang our coffee from flasks around our necks if we need to. And don't forget - we invented miniature golf!

Now my campaign advisor believes this is idiotic because the car is the American symbol and has roots going back to the cowboy era. Americans want big, fast and powerful machines that say who they are. Not these cracker boxes.

Oh that's good. He's just arrived with a flak jacket for my first news conference. It has a couple of holes in it. He says he got it at Walmart. No - don't worry, he says. The holes are from the last politician that took this stance.

Who was that, I ask?

Someone you never heard of, he says smiling. But if you look beneath the Meadowlands you might find him.

More IR

I went up to the formal gardens in north central park with my changing bag and a roll of IR in the M3 with a particular place in mind to shoot. It was overcast with bits of sun coming through so I don't know if I'll get the same dramatic effects as when I was shooting in bright sunlight.

But the garden was being setup for a big fund raiser tomorrow and there were ugly white tents everywhere and you couldn't do much without getting a gardener in the shot.

So I headed up to the lake area and did a little rock climbing to get a good view of 110th street. Came home and started printing the last batch of IR shots.

Man - I like the look a lot. If you're in the anti-grain camp - you might not like it since the grain is about like tri-x pushed one, maybe two stops. But to me that just adds to the pictorial impression. The willow trees shots and the guy in the rowboat are filled with detail that you - oh you know - you can't see it on the web which has been annoying since the beginning of web picture time. But the prints are very satisfying (considering my own difficulties with pure nature shooting). To me - it seems as if the infrared accentuates some forms and minimizes others so that if you do it right - you can amplify the design elements of the shot.

IR

I think before I go out and shoot my last two rolls of IR film I'll start printing some of the better shots. The look still intrigues me.

As an aside - I did a little bit of research into digital IR. With the right camera (probably the high end Sony - I forget the model but it has night mode) it is straightfoward. Digicams (as opposed to Digital SLRs) have a filter to cut out infrared light in front of the sensor. The funny thing is that my old Canon A75 does a poor job of cutting out IR light. If you point it at the IR light emited by say a remote control - it shows up as white on the LCD.

This is in no way a good solution since what you really want is to remove the IR filter, and believe it or not there are lots of articles on the web about how to do that yourself. There is also a guy that will do it for you for a couple hundred bucks and put in the filter you want instead.

I looked at a lot of digital infrared stuff over the last few weeks. It isn't the same as film (I don't think) because of the lack of a anti-halation layer on the Kodak film which causes all sorts of glows and whatnot as light bounces around and makes its way back through the film. But in this arena - digital looks easier. Again - with the right camera.

Again - the A75 is not what you really want since you will want to do this in RAW mode. But just for fun - if I have nothing better to do I might open the gizmo up and see how hard it is to remove the filter.

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I found an excellent summary of shooting with film IR here by David Romano.

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Strangers On A Train

I met up with Matt and did a little shooting at the Peace March. I was bored. But there were a couple of the usual "maybe" shots. However - as usual - on the way there, and on the way back I got (hoping) a couple of good shots that had nothing to do with the march. I think the march functions like the phone series. Just something to get me moving.

I suspect that unless you're paying me to cover the event (your own ideas here) my mind wanders. But -- I had an absolutely fascinating train ride home.

Fascinating to me. It was just a mood or a vibe in my corner of the train. Very strange. Everyone very relaxed. It started when an older black guy (I hate that description. Picture Scatman Crothers) - sits down opposite me; stares at the camera a while and then says, "That one beauty of a camera."

This leads into some sort of conversation about the old time stuff and how beautifully it was made and I asked, yes asked - if he'd mind if I took his portrait. Oh sure. And he looked into the lens. One shot. And pulling on the lever I feel that I'm at the end of the roll. I tell him I'm out of film and just smiles and says: I'm ready when you are D.B.

Yeah, he actually uses my initials. But it's also an expression I guess.

As I'm changing film, the doors open and a young white couple (I should do police descriptions) enter the scene. The wife is pretty and pregnant. The woman beside me is scratching her foot in its sandal and talks to the couple across the way about giving birth.

- Now that's something you should get a picture of, she says to me. (Uh, that's about the last thing I want to photograph). She's moving her sandal thong around. As is usual with passengers on the subway - she knows everything. Maybe it's not confined to the subway and everyone actually believes they do know everything.

The young husband is being peppered with advice and stories from the woman with the itchy foot. Now she moves the sandal so that I can see a cut on her heel and in the arch. A little bloody.

She wants to know if I have any bandaids. Uh - she has me confused with a medic. It might be the camera bag.

She was coming from the peace parade. How far did you walk, I ask. She closes her eyes and doing the calculations she finally sputters: 4 blocks I think. From 23rd to 18th street.

I think that's five blocks say I. And she closes her eyes and does the math again.

It was sort of like being in the middle of a strange party. I had the camera to my eye and could pretty much click away at anyone

The couple get off at 59th after the pregnant woman has been given the secrets of life by the scatman wizard and the woman with the sore foot.

Then, as if that wasn't enough a young girl who looks like she's on her way to church steps inside the train and sits in the empty seat next to the wizard. And now they're sitting there like ma and pa kettle in American Gothic.

But there's nothing on that bench anymore that gives any sense of this time period. The old and young characters look like they were in To Kill A Mockingbird. Or that we were in the delta - standing at the crossroads --

Okay that's what I was feeling during those 6 or so subway stops. Now - is any of it on film? I don't know.

Metropolitan Museum

Willow Tree

Willow Tree, Closeup, Central Park





Willow Tree and Lake

Man In Rowboat

Man in Rowboat, Central Park

Union Square - Infrared

Union Square, People








Sprial, Union Square


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A couple of tech notes: this film really wants to curl. I never had such a curly film to deal with. Almost everything was shot at f11, 1/100 sec with the red filter (I think its Wratten 25). Exposures were made with my handheld sekonic digital meter. The film was processed in Ilfotec dd-x just as if it were Tri-X.

Kodak Infrared

Shot one test roll (though often stuff on my test rolls is better than my normal rolls) with the Kodak Infrared film. I picked it up at Adorama, and also picked up a changing bag. I stopped under some scaffolding and loaded the M3 in the changing bag. That is one thin film. (No anti-halation backing). Anyway - put the 2-stop red filter on the 35mm and shot around Union Square Park. Then some shots on the subway just for the hell of it. Outdoors, I just shot around f8 or f11 and zone focused so I don't think the infrared difference in focus will matter. Inside the subway - that's another story since I was shooting wide open.

I don't think there is anything that amazing on the roll, so I'm going to just do it Ilfotec like I normally do Tri-x. I picked up some D-76 in case this roll is completely out of the ballpark.

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The strip is drying. Not bad. The only thing I can see for sure so far is that there is not much infrared light in the subway, i.e. those those shots are about 50 stops underexposed :)

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Untitled

I think I'll leave the phone at home for a while now. This was shot in one of the crevices in the Alice statue. The flare was added in PS.