Infrared Camera Mod

[hanji]

So tonight I've been doing some research on converting a digital camera to be a IR camera. I think I'll give it a shot next week. I just purchased some gel films tonight.. and should be here this week. If this works (or doesn't work), I'll be sure to explain what I did.

I'm also thinking about mod'ing a flashlight to be IR as well. I'll first mess with films, but I'll also explore converting a LED flashlight to use IR LEDs.

hanji

[Kyle]

Hey, we talked briefly about turning cameras and flashlights into IR the other day. I was thinking that having an IR flaslight wouldn't help at all if your camera wasn't also set up to pick up IR would it?

I was thinking it'd be cool to run around with an IR flashlight to see if anything showed up different, but then realized it'd be useless without the camera mod to capture the evidence.

I'm also wondering if UV (Black light) has any place in ghost hunting.

[hanji]

Kyle Wrote:Hey, we talked briefly about turning cameras and flashlights into IR the other day. I was thinking that having an IR flaslight wouldn't help at all if your camera wasn't also set up to pick up IR would it?

I was thinking it'd be cool to run around with an IR flashlight to see if anything showed up different, but then realized it'd be useless without the camera mod to capture the evidence.

I'm also wondering if UV (Black light) has any place in ghost hunting.

Hello Kyle

You are correct. IR light source can only be picked by a IR capture device. So if we had a IR mod'd flashlight, a video camera or mod'd digital camera would pick it up. This could be great for the static stationary cameras we have set up, or using them for the hand held video cameras.

As far as the UV deal. I think I saw the guys on Ghost Adventures use something like this. I can't remember the purpose or technique though.

hanji

[hanji]

Here is a cool link I found.. I remember watching this on TV and seeing these photos..

http://www.ghostsrus.com/infrared.html

Here are 3 IR photos of interest:
http://www.ghostsrus.com/New%20Site/Webs...20text.jpg
http://www.ghostsrus.com/New%20Site/Webs...20text.jpg
http://www.ghostsrus.com/little%20round%...%201C1.gif

hanji

[hanji]

Sweet! I just successfully mod'd my first digital camera to be a IR camera. I'll post some photos soon. They're pretty cool. I also did some night shots with lumination from my video camera.. not so great, but it worked. I'm excited to see how well a mod'd flashlight will do for IR photos.

hanji

[hanji]

Here is a shot I took during the day. Interesting how the plants look white.. crazy.

hanji

[hanji]

I shot a lot of IR photos at the Fort Missoula cemetery this weekend. I used a tripod and shot in groups of three for each shot. Nothing unusual in the photos. Great looking shots though.

hanji

[Kyle]

Those look sweet. Also from wiki

Wiki Wrote:In infrared photography, the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm. Usually an "infrared filter" is used; this lets infrared (IR) light pass through to the camera, but blocks all or most of the visible light spectrum (the filter thus looks black or deep red).

When these filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, very interesting "in-camera effects" can be obtained; false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the "Wood Effect," an effect mainly caused by foliage (such as tree leaves and grass) strongly reflecting in the same way visible light is reflected from snow. There is a small contribution from chlorophyll fluorescence, but this is extremely small and is not the real cause of the brightness seen in infrared photographs. The effect is named after the infrared photography pioneer Robert W. Wood, and not after the material wood, which does not glow under infrared.

The other attributes of infrared photographs include very dark skies and penetration of atmospheric haze, caused by reduced Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering, respectively, compared to visible light. The dark skies, in turn, result in less infrared light in shadows and dark reflections of those skies from water, and clouds will stand out strongly. These wavelengths also penetrate a few millimeters into skin and give a milky look to portraits, although eyes often look black.

Might help explain the white of the plants, but not really :p Either way I think it looks cool.

[hanji]

Here are some shots I took at Fort Missoula Cemetery

hanji