INFRARED FILM

by Ted Peterson
Infrared film can be either color or black and white. When the film comes back, it will not be the color that you saw when you took the picture.
There are two groups of sensitivity of these films. This film is very sensitive to the blue end and if you do not find a way to remove the blue part the blue will over rode the infrared color in the picture that you wanted..
I ran a test for PSA a few years ago . I took a roll of infrared color film and then took a couple roll of a flowering tree with all the filters that the camera store would let me take out for a day. I had it developed and then we went over the slides. You can came up with some strange pictures.
When you order Infrered film there will be a sheet of paper telling you what filter you should use. They can be 89A, 88A, 87C, 87, 88. If you do not have any of these you can use allmost any red filter. Some of them will work.
Another thing you will see is that you CAN NOT use a light meter to judge the lighting. The film will have some manufacturers instructions included. Follow their instructions. The light that you see is not the light that infrared see.
The focal length will also be off. The lenses were not made for this type of film. The lens will have a rather large focus shift. You need to focus without the filter on and then when you add the filter rack out the lens 1/200 of its focal lenght. This will make up for the shift.
Infrared film shows you what is hot and cold. Water will show jet black etc. You can get some different but good pictures. If you want to take a picture like you see it, you do not want to use this type of film. It will not look like you see it.
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