Infrared Photography In The Tropics

I have always been intrigued with infrared photography, especially with the false color infrared photos that appears on books and websites used for remote sensing.

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Sony DSC-S85

Before I bought the Sony DSC-S85 I took along my TV remote control to the shops and tested it out following advice from Digital Photography For What It's Worth. It was very helpful and it worked.

I was a little worried at first since majority of people were using the Oly 2020, Nikon Coolpix and Canon Powershot for digital infrared and it worked well. There were no information on use of infrared on the DSC-S85 reported. Only recently was the page updated indicating Sony DSC-S70 was also usable as a digital infrared camera although not as sensitive as the Oly & Nikon.

Well, here are some infrared pictures taken with the Sony DSC-S85 and Hoya R72 infrared filter. I must say that the DSC-S85 CCD sensor is quite sensitive to infrared. In many case I do not have to use maximum aperture and slow shutter speeds. Either the S85 is sensitive enough or we tend to get heavier dosage of IR here in the tropics. The DSC-S85 is highly sensitive to the reds as shown by the color infrared photos so much so it at first appears that I am using a red R25 filter instead. 

Generally I find that you can get good infrared pictures with the DSC-S85 even during moderate overcast - perhaps due to higher amount of IR in the tropics? Using color setting on the DSC-S85 for infrared results in a reddish color photo much like using a R25A filter! Some other brands digicams gives a slight blue tint or sepia and I much prefer those than Sony's over saturation with red. This is a fault with the DSC-S85. Its a pity since the Oly, Powershot and even the F717 can take color infrared photos nicely.

I also noticed the DSC-S85 makes a very slight click after it has taken the shot but just before it displays recording on the LCD. During the day using auto program mode I do not hear the click - maybe background noise masked it. However, on manual mode with long exposure times and during the quiet of the night you can hear a click. So far there has been no documentation of a moving IR cut filter in the DSC-S85 only the F717. Is this the black curtain used by camera to take black shot for error correction. What is that click?

There are also a couple of strange infrared shots below and I do not know at this stage if the Hoya R72 is still transmitting too much normal light or maybe because the Sony DSC-S85 is highly sensitive.

In summary, the Sony DSC-S85 is able to take fairly reasonable IR pictures. But the focus of the IR pictures has lots of room for improvement. In the following pictures, I just used a tripod and steady finger to take the shot - no cable release.

I am still exploring infrared photography and shall be updating this page with more pictures. I am waiting for my Hoya RM90 and Kodak Wratten 87C to arrive! Visit this site again for more IR pictures.

If you have comments on any of the photos please let me know.  Your views are welcome.

One of the botanical gardens near my home.

Clouds remains white regardless of filter.

#02150r	#02173r	#02135r	#02112r
No Filter	Hoya R25A	Hoya R72	Hoya R72
ISO100 Color Aperture Priority f5.6	ISO100 Color f8 1/4s	ISO100 BW f5.6 5s	ISO100 Color f5.6 5s
Normal color photo to show the color of the blue sky.	Slightly under exposed.	Blue sky turns dark but clouds remains white.	Whole photo turns red due to over saturation of red. This is a major problem in the Sony DSC-S85 (in fact majority of Sony digicams suffers from this).

#02542r	#02544r
No Filter	Hoya R72
ISO100 Color Program	ISO100 BW 2s f2.8

#02582r	#02585r
No Filter	Hoya R72
ISO100 Program Color	ISO100 BW 5s f4

#02592r	#02599r	#02596r
No Filter	No Filter	Hoya R72
ISO100 Program Color	ISO100 BW Program	ISO100 4s f2.8

Very little difference between BW and infrared photos under certain conditions.

#01988r	#01926r	#01974r		#01966r
No Filter	No Filter	Hoya R72		Hoya R72
ISO100 Color 8s f4.5	ISO100 BW 1/100s f2.5	ISO100 BW 8s f4.5		ISO100 Color 8s f4.5
There is a slight tint of yellow in this normal color photo.	Normal BW photo. Light is quite intense so the slower shutter compared to others. I missed taking a photo at f4.5 for comparison - I shall do this soon.	Except for the level of brightness, this infrared photo is not much different from a normal BW photo at left.		The purple halo seems like chromatic aberration but it did not appear on the color photo at far left. Does IR exaggerates chromatic aberration? Notice also the bulb appears extra bright compared to the others.
All above photos were taken in the night with no other light sources visible. All photos were taken at 2272x1520 fine resolution and down sampled to 180x120 pixels at 50% quality to keep file sizes down. The bulb is a normal incandescent Osram 240V 40W E14 clear (CLAS B CL 40). The lamp has frosted glass and was turned on for more than 1/2 hour before the shots. The camera was mounted on a tripod approximately 8 feet away. I wonder why the bulb gives off so much infrared light or is it due to the sensitivity of the S85's CCD?

#1600r	#1689r
Hoya R72	Hoya R72
ISO100 8s f2.5 Color	ISO100 2.5s f8 BW
Slight reddish tone due to S85's high sensitivity to red.	Slightly under exposed. But leaves can be seen white.

Here's how a TV remote looks like on the DSC-S85.

#01897r	#01893r	#01885r
No filter	Hoya R72	No filter
ISO100 color f2.5 4s	ISO100 Color f2.5 8s	ISO100 Color f2.5 8s
Remote is approximately 1 feet from camera's back plane. No flash.	Remote is approximately 1 feet from camera's back plane.	Remote is 8 inches from camera back plane. This is just a close up. Funny that infrared causes chromatic aberration.
It appears the S85 is quite sensitive to infrared. I could not get this bright light at the shop when I tested the camera before purchase. I suppose the bright fluorescent lights at the shop somehow dimmed the infrared. If you want to test a camera before you buy make sure you bring your remote with fresh batteries and shade both camera and remote from the fluorescent lights with a cardboard.

Infrared Links

These are links to some of the infrared resources I am aware of.

Infrared Gallery

The sites below have some beautiful infrared photographs.

There are many more wonderful sites that I do not have time to list. You may follow links and most of the other sites do have extensive links.