I have loved infrared images for years now. I used to take infrared pictures with my old Canon Digital Rebel about 4 years ago. The only problem with that was it took at least 10 seconds to get a good picture; you couldn’t just point and shoot. It was pretty impractical for wedding photography.

What is infrared photography?

First, it’s not a heat camera and it can’t shoot in the dark (without an infrared light source). Infrared is part of the light spectrum just under the colour red, but our eyes can’t see it. Digital cameras are designed to filter out infrared light, which is counter intuitive to infrared photography, but an absolute necessity to take regular pictures.

So I took apart one of my expensive DSLR cameras and cut out the insides, and replaced a little filter that prevents me from taking these amazing photos quickly like a regular light camera.

What does it look like?

Different objects reflect IR light differently. In infrared photos the sky and water will look deep blue or black. Fluffy clouds will continue to look like their fluffy selves, while grass on the other hand reflects a lot of infrared so it turns out a snowy white. The picture above is one I took at the end of September on a nice sunny day at York University. Trees were green at the time and there was no snow for months.

Infrared Photography at Weddings?

That’s the plan! I am so excited to have this in my arsenal (I love new gear). I will be shooting a wedding down in Mexico next month and this will be the first wedding I will try it out with. The results should be spectacular! I will be bringing the camera to all of my 2009 weddings to take a few pictures with.