Infrared light is not visible to human eyes, as they are only sensitive to light that is within what is referred to as the ‘visible spectrum’. Infrared lies beyond this band, and a fascination with Infrared Photography took COOPH Master to the same spot, to photograph the same tree at different times throughout the year.
Infrared photography has become more accessible, and offers a whole new dimension of creative options. There are a few things you need to get started; for example filters are essential as they prevent visible light hitting your sensor, while allowing the infrared light through. We wanted to know more! So we asked Lorenz about his setup…
June
August
What camera do you use?
I’m shooting my Infrared images with a converted full spectrum Canon 700D.
Are you shooting film or digital? What filter do you have?
I used to shoot Aerochrom 120 Rollfilm with my Hasselblad back in the days, but the film is not made by Kodak anymore, so the price you pay for the available leftover films went trough the roof. That was the reason why I changed to a converted digital Version.
I’m using a 642nm filter, because I don’t want to block all the visible light, otherwise the images would not have any color in it and be more or less black and white, with only the IR visible.
September
October
How did you discover the technique and what fascinates you about it?
As I said, I was shooting IR film back in the days and I ways purely fascinated to shoot stuff, that my eyes couldn’t see. The cool think with IR photography is that you can make thinks visible that reflect IR-light, lake every active plant that does photosynthesis.
The film was used for aerial photography back in the days, when a plane flew over a forest and with the help of IR-photography, people could see if the forest was in a good shape or in a bad on, depending on how much RR-light was reflected by the leaves.
November
December
That was something that fascinated me a lot. You look at a scene that looks very homogen in your visible light, but when you see the same scene under IR-light, you can see all the little things, that are active or not.
How did you mark and find the same spot to take the pics over a year?
I just put a stick in the ground to mark the center of my tripod and then I just always put the trunk of the tree on the same autofocus point, whenever I got there. With this, I always had the same framing for the whole series.
January
April
For more follow Lorenz on Instagram!
