Category: blog

In Infrared Photography there are a few problems and image errors that are not known in "normal" photography. Lens flares in backlight situations are an example, which is why it is rather common not to have the sun directly in the picture. Nevertheless, it can sometimes be worthwhile to do it anyway and to include the resulting "image errors" directly in the composition of the image. The low sun was intentionally placed here as a counterweight to the tree on the right side of the image. The lens flares extend over the entire image and give the sun a much greater meaning in the image. Without the lens flares, it would probably be "only" the brightest point in the picture, but this way it influences the entire scenery even into the shadow areas.

By the way, the photo was taken on the island of Rügen, an infrared workshop will take place there in early July 2022 and there are still places available:

Normally, a good white balance is necessary even for a black and white infrared image. However, this always introduces noise into the image. With older cameras, which are quite noise prone, there is a little trick. You can use only one color channel of the image to create a black and white image. Of course, the red channel is the best choice because it is the brightest. How you can do this with darktable is shown in this video. Many thanks to Markus Weigel for providing the photo from Lübeck!