If you’re an original Fujifilm X fan like me, than you’re probably aware of how IR sensitive their cameras can be. They aren’t quite full spectrum cameras, but you can capture some unique shots with just a large R72 infrared filter and step down/up rings like I did the other day at Morikami.
The last time I shot an IR photo was with my original launch Fujifilm X-Pro 1 after reading an article about how some sensors can be more IR sensitive than others. At that time, I used my Fujinon XF 35mm F1.4 R to take some sunny and rainy day photos as an experiment to see how capturing just IR light could be used creatively. After my experiments, I quickly moved onto other forms of photography and never really found the time to give IR a try again, until the other day when I was curious to see if my Fujifilm X-Pro 2 was as IR sensitive as my original X-Pro 1.
To my delight, the X-Pro 2 was able to easily capture IR photos at speeds that most photographers can easily hand-hold without having to raise the ISO much. The X-Pro 2 also continued focus accurately and quickly throughout my day shooting IR with my Fujinon XF35mm F2 R WR and Fujinon XF56mmF1.2 R attached.
Shooting IR can be a little strange at first because the images appear red or brown before being white-balanced with something green, which makes much of your image white with a hint of colors like purple on various plants. If you try to open up the raw files from a white starting point like I did, you will find that the brown/red tint begins to return; but it can also make other aspects of the photos stand out, which is why I gave it a try. There really is no right way to process IR files because it’s more of an art than an exact science, but many people will convert IR photos to black and white to get a unique rendering.
I created two albums on 500PX so that you can see what I did with the RAW files the X-Pro 2 produced with a R72 IR filter attached, and what they can look like when converted to B&W, which is common. You can see the IR album here and the B&W album here but, since I have become a big fan of Fujifilm ACROS, I decided that the most unique result I could come up with would be Fujifilm ACROS IR photos. Hopefully you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them and check the albums in the future because I hope to add some long exposure shots in IR at some point in the future.
