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40 Incredible Near-Infrared Photos
One of the most charming contrasting color effects you can get in photography is by using infrared. An easy way to understand near-infrared light is to think of it as the color of the rainbow next to red, a color that is invisible to the human eye. But near-infrared is not the same as thermal imaging.
Because everyday objects reflect infrared in proportions that differ sharply from that of visible light, the tonal relationships are wildly unexpected. Such near-infrared techniques used in photography give subjects an exotic, antique look. Green vegetation becomes white, whereas human skin becomes pale and ghostly. The resulting images look alien.
Digital cameras use CCD and other similar sensors to capture infrared images. Although all digital cameras available on the market are sensitive to infrared light, they are equipped with infrared-blocking filters. The main reason for this is that consumer cameras are designed to capture visible light. But sometimes these filters are used together, giving very interesting in-camera effects like false color, wood effects etc.
To start with infrared photography, all you need to have is
- A digital camera that is sensitive to infrared light.
- A visible-light blocking filter (e.g. a Wratten 89B filter)
- Image-editing software, such as Photoshop.
Near-infrared images straight out of the camera do not always look good and are usually not as dramatic and beautiful as normally captured images. Hence, a lot of post-processing is done to enhance these images. Some techniques used in post-processing are equalization, focus shift, small aperture, light leaks, digital false color, halo, etc.
Below, we present a selection of over 40 beautiful infrared images. Some of these images have undergone heavy post-processing, and all of these examples display the names of the photographers, along with links to their websites.
Also take a look at our previous photography articles:
- 35 Fantastic HDR Pictures
- 35 Beautiful Examples Of Rain Photography
- 45 Beautiful Motion Blur Photos
- Beautiful Black And White Photos
- Celebration Of Smoke Photography and Smoke Art
The Beauty Of Infrared Photography
NASA
“The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared”.
NASA
“Huge Hi-Res Photo of ‘Infrared Andromeda’ with 1 trillion stars”
Roie Galitz
This photo is titled “The Fisherman”.
NASA
“An infrared image of Saturn’s northern region shows a luminous aurora with the planet’s mottled rings below.”
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Licht
Last Click
Sources and Resources
- High-Speed Infrared Flickr Pool
- Tutorial: Infrared Photo Effect In Photoshop
Simulate the look of infrared photography in Photoshop. - Flickr Pool: Infrared Landscapes
Landscape photography. - Infrared Land- and Cityscapes
A Flickr set, created by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Licht. - Digital Infrared Flickr Album
- Flickr Pool: Digital Infrared
Mostly has images that were shot in the infrared spectrum, not digitally modified to recreate the infrared look and feel. - 7 Inspiring Infrared And HDR Photographers
- Infrared Photography Buzz
“Offering the most comprehensive source of info on digital infrared photography on the net.” This website presents technical info about cameras and accessories used for infrared photography. - Tutorial:Take Infrared Pictures With Your Digital Camera
Shows you how to make a cheap infrared filter for your digital camera out of bits and pieces, such as cardboard rolls, electrical tape, and some black processed and old negatives.
(al)
Vailancio Rodrigues, born and currently living in scenic beauty of Goa, spent most of his childhood in art and creativity. At present a College student who likes to try and do different things at every moment. Also an webmaster and web designer – Tiny Goa and Pixel Art.
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- 1
- 2January 11th, 2009 9:26 pm
These look great! Love the shots. Thanks for the collection!
- 3January 11th, 2009 9:27 pm
cant believe this is all done without ps. i love the pic from danielle with the wolf on the right. sm you inspired me today, thank you
- 4January 11th, 2009 9:43 pm
Nice collection.
@Tom – Not all is done without Photoshop, though, some are, and photos can turn out very nice without it.
- 5January 11th, 2009 10:16 pm
WOw!……..gr8 Collections……..Loved all :-)
- 6January 11th, 2009 10:36 pm
Some of those are pretty nice shots. Thanx for the collection.
- 7January 11th, 2009 10:46 pm
Wowwwwwww
- 8January 11th, 2009 10:47 pm
AMAZING!
- 9January 11th, 2009 10:53 pm
good sharing
- 10January 12th, 2009 12:30 am
Wow, that´s a good day start!!!!
- 11January 12th, 2009 12:41 am
Amazing Collection Vailancio… Thanks for sharing :)
- 12January 12th, 2009 12:52 am
As a web desiger with a passion for photography I love SM’s occasional dip into the imaging world – great stuff, and thank you!
- 13January 12th, 2009 1:41 am
Really nice shots….
Might have to haev a play and see if I can get anything as interesting and individual as these. Great article SM.
- 14January 12th, 2009 2:04 am
amazing!
- 15
- 16January 12th, 2009 3:17 am
I love the last photo. (trazy)
- 17January 12th, 2009 3:41 am
So great post , Really Sweeties Pictures Smashing Magazine , Thanks , love it
- 18January 12th, 2009 3:54 am
It’s a pity you only include one B&W pictures. Many times the results are far better than color infrared.
- 19January 12th, 2009 4:57 am
Thats a great collection, I love the image by Corrado Borean, it’s looks like an amazing place too! Thanks SM!
- 20January 12th, 2009 5:12 am
Good selection of pictures. Thanks!
- 21January 12th, 2009 7:21 am
Awesome – awesome – awesome!
Thanks!
- 22January 12th, 2009 7:25 am
Excellent, try this similar one on LONG EXPOSURES:
20 Long Exposure photographs that won’t fail to inspire
Thanks all, love the site
- 23January 12th, 2009 8:13 am
Great!
- 24January 12th, 2009 8:39 am
I’ve seen ‘Gilad’s work before, though I never fully understood how this technique worked.
- 25January 12th, 2009 10:32 am
Some very nice pictures in here, I’d love to try that technique out myself… It’s a shame these filters are so expensive.
Anyway, I still have to mention that I think some of these pictures are ONLY done with post-processing and don’t have anything to do with actually using IR filters. For example: the works of Jernej Verbovsek, G2-Studio Photography or Corrado Borean dont really seem like IR-fotography. Cause first of all, using a IR-filter you need a way longer time of exposure than for a normal photo to allow enough infrared light to get through. Thus it might be difficult to take a picture that captures any moving subjects (like a duck, a waving surface of water, people…) Secondly, leaves and grass reflect infrared light almost to 100%, which is how this great effect of white trees in front of dark skies is created. So anything with dark leaves or forcibly short exposure time might just be a photoshop fake. Not that I’d think of that as bad… I’ve tried that myself, and you get pretty good results for less money. I’m just mentioning this for general enlightenment.;)
(Of course there are filters that don’t strictly filter out every light wave frequency except IR, and you could get “in between” results with them, but i guess what’s been done here is really just photoshopping of normal pictures.)BTW: For anyone who wants to try out IR-photography: Before running to your local photoequipment dealer, make sure that your camera is actually IR sensitive (because this varies considerably among normal digital cameras). This can easily be done by taking a long-time-exposure photo of a IR remote device (like most standard tv remote devices) in a dark room while constantly pressing a button on the device. If you see the little IR bulb glow on the photo, you’re free to run off to the photo shop…;)
- 26January 12th, 2009 10:34 am
Hi there,
I created this site Digital Infrared Photos a few ago, if you want to get more info about infrared photography.
Actually I was happy to see that I have completely different photos on my site except maybe 1.Thank you SM for another great compilation !
- 27January 12th, 2009 10:35 am
@Bryce Driesenga so, i need a tutorial for those effects or something to read – for understanding techniques and maybe used plugins. but great pics
- 28January 12th, 2009 11:07 am
@shasta The IR filters aren’t that expensive if you get them from ebay. I was lucky enough to get mine for about $35 (Hoya R72)
- 29January 12th, 2009 11:15 am
Those are beautiful. All I can say is WOW!
- 30January 12th, 2009 12:06 pm
magnifique !
- 31January 12th, 2009 12:11 pm
wow perfect photos :O
- 32January 12th, 2009 2:56 pm
Beautiful…
- 33January 12th, 2009 2:57 pm
wow … nice photos !!! O_O
- 34January 12th, 2009 3:38 pm
Plenty of nice images but i doubt half of them were actually shot like they are shown here. I.e. with IR light and using blocking filters for other wavelengths. The rest is Photoshop and other tools at work. So please don’t call it photography when it isn’t. Also I suppose a number of the photos are from stock image libraries and or combinations with these.
- 35January 12th, 2009 3:49 pm
Wow arent we full of new year cheer. Relax man and enjoy some lovely “imagery” regardless of how it came to be.
- 36January 12th, 2009 10:28 pm
Awesome!!!!!
Specially
Daniella T, Cavagna Ottavio, Bruna Marchioro, Frank Brauner, Giladm, Romulo Lubachesky
- 37January 12th, 2009 11:06 pm
I’m totally stunned. Haven’t thought it could be soooo beautiful!!!
- 38January 13th, 2009 12:04 am
I think Stuart is right!!! Enjoy PICS
- 39January 13th, 2009 1:30 am
amazing!
Where is that triangle, UFO spaceship thing located?
http://media.smashingmagazine.com/cdn_smash/images/infrared-photography/irr.jpgIt reminds me of the logo of this company http://www.spafu.nl/
Does it have any symbolic meaning?
- 40January 13th, 2009 2:55 am
@shasta – you can have normal exposure time if you modify your DSLR camera. All you have to do is to remove an IR filter from the sensor. This filter filters out the infrared light spectrum and this is the reason of very long exposure time.
- 41
- 42January 13th, 2009 11:15 pm
so beautiful！
- 43January 14th, 2009 1:11 am
This sucks.
just kidding. its great.
- 44January 14th, 2009 4:19 am
Awesome pictures!!
- 45January 14th, 2009 7:52 am
Can it still be called photography? Most of them not. I dont like them at all. Sorry
- 46
- 47January 15th, 2009 5:09 am
Wonderful.
Especially liked the ones that were frosty white.
- 48January 16th, 2009 1:21 pm
You don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for a good IR filter:
http://www.photofilter.com/hoyair.html#R72You can also have your camera converted to focus on the IR portion of the spectrum and avoid using the opaque filters. Check out the list to see if it is possible to convert your camera \ model.
http://www.lifepixel.com/IR.htm - 49January 17th, 2009 12:45 am
Wow, Omar Junior is my favorite!! Great post!
- 50January 17th, 2009 7:00 am
Here’s the thing. If those pictures were not made with the technique described, then they don’t belong here. It doesn’t matter if they’re beautiful or not. It just means that the description is inaccurate if you chose to include those.
And a true IR photo is still PHOTOgraphy, since IR is light (photo) and you’re making an image (graph). In fact, you can get IR film and use it like any other film. Photoshop is another thing still.
- 51
- 52January 18th, 2009 10:46 pm
G.R.E.A.T !
- 53January 19th, 2009 2:33 am
Wow! I want to learn this. Had read about IR on film in 1999 and thought it was for night vision like pics in near darkness and or using a infrared light source.
- 54January 19th, 2009 8:56 am
WOW!
- 55January 19th, 2009 11:14 am
Breath taking!!!!
- 56January 20th, 2009 1:30 am
Somebody informed me my image was here.
Thanks for appreciating my attempt at IR.
I used a Hoya R72 on a Nikon D80 using a 17-55 DX lens. I then used the simple processing technique in lifepixel.com.
Just remember, the hotter the scene (literally), the more vibrant your image is with more contrast and better depth.
Thanks for appreciating.
- 57January 22nd, 2009 3:44 pm
That beach scene is so surreal. You see many infrared photos, but I have never seen anything quite like that…..Amazing!
- 58January 28th, 2009 3:17 pm
beautiful..there aren’t words which could describe these photos..
- 59February 3rd, 2009 7:16 pm
How about this Janis “Absolutely stunning especially the winter scenes”
- 60February 5th, 2009 9:10 pm
These are some beautiful photos, though some of them are not IR at all, i read someones comment about black and white IR, and its true they come out alot better.
I still consider myself amatuer for sure, but ive been told that i have some good work on here. http://bwasserphotos.blogspot.com
Though some of them i admit are garbage. - 61February 18th, 2009 7:58 pm
What it’s all about!
- 62February 23rd, 2009 9:43 pm
this is vns near IR shot
http://www.igorlaptev.com/ViewPhoto.asp?ID=85&page=1 - 63
- 64April 23rd, 2009 8:52 pm
Wow..!!!!!!!! Mind blowing…
Really amazing… !!!!!!!!!!! - 65May 10th, 2009 9:14 am
Beautiful set of IR images. Fantastic work from some very talented individuals. There is a LOT of post processing involved with these photos, but that in no way reflects negatively on the artists or their work. Quite the contrary. It is very obvious that they have all captured these scenes in the IR spectrum of light using various value IR pass filters, and yes, most have probably come from cameras that have been modified to remove the internal IR blocking filter. It is next to impossible to post process a photo taken in visible light and come up with results like these. The light captured is just very different.
Take a look at my tutorials and Featured Photographers on my site http://www.irbuzz.blogspot.com for some ideas about what it takes to shoot IR.
Regards, -=- Jerry -=-
- 66May 24th, 2009 2:39 am
I like all picture have a lovely beautifull and lucky weekend
- 00
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Just beautiful! Its a cool technique and tons of fun to look at. Good stuff!
~Jason