Computer monitors don't display the full color spectrum. It doesn't emit any violet light either. The magenta in the Image is only made of the red and blue pixels (FF00FF), cyan is made of the blue and green pixels (00FFFF) and yellow is made of the green and red pixels (FFFF00). A better test image would be made of 3 individual r,g,b stripes so one can more cleary tell what wavelenghts are absorbed.
Technically, computer pixels only emit red, green, and blue light. So yes, this is a hack. Great suggestion! I may try that and see what the results are.
@@robshea btw bud because of my obsession and clumsiness (broke or lost at least have a dozen IR filters for my Sony ex m 4) the one good thing to come out of it is experiencing a modest amour of IR filters from different companies besides Hoya .. I was happy with Hoya but since I have been since January Hoya , or Amazon wouldn’t ship the Hoya lens to a business mailing affiliate adresss as alternative to residential address so besides hoya I have used I think the company Desmond ICE 760 nm ( which I didn’t realize for sometime it was 760 and not 720) which oddly enough I thought that would mean less color separation and saturation but I think I have noticed more color .. besides that company I have used Breakthrough 720, and Urth, which at least for my unconverted lens URth was horrific for my Sony but shocking good when I place over the lens of my iPhone 12 and shoot with the LR mobile camera app (the WB custom option in the camera ap is shockingly good) breath through produced a beautiful image but it broke pretty easily crazy the Breakthrough and Urth price was around 100 150 dollars while that Desmond ICE company price was super low at around 35. I meant to ask you have you ever experimented unconverted with something lower than 720 ? I’m really curious to see if some magic could happen trying something lower .. I like that Kolari is very informative with respect to if the filers they offer can be used for one or their or both camera options
I have an a7r I was going to send for conversion but then I found one already converted at KEH for a good price. This video helped me confirm it is likely a 550nm conversion so thanks! I've been shooting IR for over 15 years but this is my first full frame, so that's pretty exiting for me. I ordered a 665nm magnetic insert filter from Kolari as that tends to be my favorite range to shoot in.
Just ordered my first IR Full Spectrum camera from Life Pixel IR, with a full range of filters. Learning a lot from your videos. Thank you and keep the content coming.
This is a neat little test. I have a window facing south(US) I can open it, I have a cardboard cover with a little slit made with box cutter razors. I aim my camera at the slit and focus on it, with a diffraction grading on my lens/filter at an angle, and just need to pan my camera to right a bit, and that's how I test all my filters. I see the Fraunhofer lines and colors and compare to published line nm findings.
Wow, I never would've guessed that was the IR Chrome! Or, I guess I wouldn't have if I hadn't seen the chapter name, haha. Super interesting stuff as always, Rob.
Great video, Rob. I have a full-spectrum converted Canon R6 (v1). But I will use your image to see what it's like with my 470,720, 665, and 830 lens filters.
Rob, your a treasure to the YT Community ❤ just receiverd my EOS M modified to FS. Thank you for inspiring us infrared plebs Tested my band pass filter and it only passes blue and red.
That is an interesting idea. In some cases looking through a filter (or photographing) a color checker card could give a full idea with no risks of error. I think yellow on monitor is a flawed idea. After all, the monitor outputs no yellow, only R, G & B and visually yellow color is made of combining red and green pixels. Therefore your filter also filters away/through only red or green. (Amount of green should lower in many cases though with something like a filter that passes well only from yellow to longer wavelenghth. All that being said, looking at R G and B colors gives some idea and looking color chart seemed to work well for yellows too unlike monitor. I got the idea of looking at colors from this video. I'm still trying to figure out the ultimate method (without a specrometer) to characterize filters. Finding out attenuation is sometimes a very useful to know. So far the best has been to just take a few photos and see how they turn out.
Good observation on the pixels. For those of us that have shot with multiple filters, we can make educated guesses about the filter used. It's good to have options for those who haven't shot as much. I, too, would love a better way to measure without buying a $20k spectrometer.
@@robshea Color chart seemed to work in a quick try and gives you some idea weather you have low or high attenuation for other colors. With a converted camera IR light can be a problem though, especially in sunny but low-IR artificial light perhaps would do well. I think that is an idea I'll try more when there is natural light. I guess something similar to a simple prism or diffraction grading would be one way to make more diy measurement with low budget but at totally other complexity level than shooting eg. a color chart.
Oh fantastic, I love this video! Using your test image, I have a Fuji XE-1 converted to 590 nm InfraRed. That answers that question. Now that I know this, what are the practical implications on my IR photography?
590 nm filters offer a normal amount of color saturation into foliage. This means that when looking for compositions, you will want to find a balance between three key elements: sky/clouds, colorful foliage, and neutral elements (those that do not reflect color and appear more grayscale). Too much foliage could make for a bland oversaturated image. The foliage doesn't always need to be the star, it could be used as a framing or backgrounds element for a neutral subject. Look for contrast between these three types of subjects.
You could get a dual-band filter that passes H-alpha and O3 narrow bands. Or look for a light pollution filter that blocks the wavelengths commonly emitted by city lights.
On a converted camera, the sensor can detect light up to around 1,000 nm. But sensors can only assign colors to red, green, and blue. Since they don't know how to interpret IR light, it gets assigned to visible light colors.
A high-pass filter, allows wavelengths above the stated value to pass. For example, a 590 nm IR filter allows wavelengths above 590nm, orange, red, and infrared, to pass. IR Chrome is a special dual-bandpass filter which allows light from two ranges to pass, blue and infrared light, while blocking light in between.
If a 25 red filter were to be placed on a 590nm converted camera, what would the result be(in nm)? Would I get the same result if placed on a non-converted camera (and processed in Photoshop to get a more normal color balance)? How about an orange or green filter?
A red 25 filter is essentially a 590nm filter, so placed on a 590nm converted camera, it would have no effect. Using either a 590nm or 25 red filter on an unconverted camera would result in an image filled with red and orange visible light, but no noticeable IR due to the internal hot mirror filter. You will get no noticeable IR light when using an orange or green filter on an unconverted camera. With an unconverted camera, you will need a 720nm or higher filter in order to capture IR light.
well i think i have a 690, or 720, but i have a canon 2000 eos what is a good exposure time? how do i custom white balance, my leaves are still green whenever i take a pic with my filter, no matter if i custom white balance on camera. can you help me?
For an unconverted camera, the typical exposure time would be around 5-20 seconds, assuming low ISO and f/5.6. If you are seeing green in your leaves, then your filter may be allowing too much visible light to pass. Do you know what brand it is?
@@robshea it doesnt say what brand. i know when i took the filter test, it had to be from 590 to 720, when i put it on my samsung a71 smartphone, it works great. it is 52-58mm. now do samsung phones, automatically custom balance? what do i do?
@@56jklove If you use a 590 nm filter on an unconverted camera, such as a smartphone, you will only get visible light and no IR. This could be why you are still seeing green when using the filter. If you shoot raw, you can WB while editing. To WB in-camera, you will need an app that supports it, such as Lightroom mobile.
@@robshea i think my lens is a 720, because it works fine when its on my smartphone, but on my regular camera, i still see green, is there a way i can email the photos
What is your camera's subject ? A monitor screen or is it a physical print on paper ? Regardless, if it's a monitor, you do NOT have the full spectrum, just the monitor's primaries of Red, Green, and Blue. The Magenta, Cyan, and Yellows that you see on the monitor are not physically there, your brain is combining the Red, Green, and Blue to yield a perception of the Magenta, Cyan, and Yellow. Your camera has no brain, it can not manifest a combination of monitor primaries into perceptive colors. That is why your 550nm filter simply blocks Blue. The other colors are just your brains blending of the monitor's Red and Green. If your subject is a paper print, again, this is not a full spectrum, you are seeing the blending of Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, and Black Inks and again it's your brain which is creating the experience you have of the other colors. If you really want to see the spectral properties of a visible light filter or of an infrared light filter, start with a pure white spectrum such as a halogen lamp projector, narrow the beam of light with a vertical slit aperture, then spread the spectrum out with an optical glass prism. Project the resulting spectrum onto a white screen and photograph this with your filter collection. If you need a more definitive spectral measure of a filter's performance, get yourself a spectrometer. There are many available. www.amazon.com/Sekonic-SpectroMaster-C-7000-Bundle-Kit/dp/B081ZJMFBQ/
Computer monitors don't display the full color spectrum. It doesn't emit any violet light either. The magenta in the Image is only made of the red and blue pixels (FF00FF), cyan is made of the blue and green pixels (00FFFF) and yellow is made of the green and red pixels (FFFF00). A better test image would be made of 3 individual r,g,b stripes so one can more cleary tell what wavelenghts are absorbed.
Technically, computer pixels only emit red, green, and blue light. So yes, this is a hack. Great suggestion! I may try that and see what the results are.
My immediate response to o the title of your video was
“All of them”
Hope you are well sensai
🤣
@@robshea btw bud because of my obsession and clumsiness (broke or lost at least have a dozen IR filters for my Sony ex m 4) the one good thing to come out of it is experiencing a modest amour of IR filters from different companies besides Hoya .. I was happy with Hoya but since I have been since January Hoya , or Amazon wouldn’t ship the Hoya lens to a business mailing affiliate adresss as alternative to residential address so besides hoya I have used I think the company Desmond ICE 760 nm ( which I didn’t realize for sometime it was 760 and not 720) which oddly enough I thought that would mean less color separation and saturation but I think I have noticed more color .. besides that company I have used Breakthrough 720, and Urth, which at least for my unconverted lens URth was horrific for my Sony but shocking good when I place over the lens of my iPhone 12 and shoot with the LR mobile camera app (the WB custom option in the camera ap is shockingly good) breath through produced a beautiful image but it broke pretty easily crazy the Breakthrough and Urth price was around 100 150 dollars while that Desmond ICE company price was super low at around 35. I meant to ask you have you ever experimented unconverted with something lower than 720 ? I’m really curious to see if some magic could happen trying something lower .. I like that Kolari is very informative with respect to if the filers they offer can be used for one or their or both camera options
I have an a7r I was going to send for conversion but then I found one already converted at KEH for a good price. This video helped me confirm it is likely a 550nm conversion so thanks! I've been shooting IR for over 15 years but this is my first full frame, so that's pretty exiting for me. I ordered a 665nm magnetic insert filter from Kolari as that tends to be my favorite range to shoot in.
Just ordered my first IR Full Spectrum camera from Life Pixel IR, with a full range of filters. Learning a lot from your videos. Thank you and keep the content coming.
This was wonderful and tickled my brain.
Makes me want to learn photography.
Thanks chief!
This is a neat little test.
I have a window facing south(US) I can open it, I have a cardboard cover with a little slit made with box cutter razors. I aim my camera at the slit and focus on it, with a diffraction grading on my lens/filter at an angle, and just need to pan my camera to right a bit, and that's how I test all my filters. I see the Fraunhofer lines and colors and compare to published line nm findings.
Great tip!
Wow, I never would've guessed that was the IR Chrome! Or, I guess I wouldn't have if I hadn't seen the chapter name, haha. Super interesting stuff as always, Rob.
😂
Nice, easy and practical! Thank you. Now only need to find some subjects to use my Nikon Rayfact 105mm :-)
Great Video Rob ! Best Wishes from Ireland ! Ed.
Great video, Rob. I have a full-spectrum converted Canon R6 (v1). But I will use your image to see what it's like with my 470,720, 665, and 830 lens filters.
You’re a great teacher.
Thanks Rob! I bought a second hand camera (Fuji XE1) converted to IR. I thought it was 720nm and this confirms it!!
Perfect!
Rob, your a treasure to the YT Community ❤ just receiverd my EOS M modified to FS. Thank you for inspiring us infrared plebs
Tested my band pass filter and it only passes blue and red.
That is an interesting idea. In some cases looking through a filter (or photographing) a color checker card could give a full idea with no risks of error.
I think yellow on monitor is a flawed idea. After all, the monitor outputs no yellow, only R, G & B and visually yellow color is made of combining red and green pixels. Therefore your filter also filters away/through only red or green. (Amount of green should lower in many cases though with something like a filter that passes well only from yellow to longer wavelenghth.
All that being said, looking at R G and B colors gives some idea and looking color chart seemed to work well for yellows too unlike monitor. I got the idea of looking at colors from this video.
I'm still trying to figure out the ultimate method (without a specrometer) to characterize filters. Finding out attenuation is sometimes a very useful to know. So far the best has been to just take a few photos and see how they turn out.
Good observation on the pixels. For those of us that have shot with multiple filters, we can make educated guesses about the filter used. It's good to have options for those who haven't shot as much. I, too, would love a better way to measure without buying a $20k spectrometer.
@@robshea Color chart seemed to work in a quick try and gives you some idea weather you have low or high attenuation for other colors.
With a converted camera IR light can be a problem though, especially in sunny but low-IR artificial light perhaps would do well.
I think that is an idea I'll try more when there is natural light.
I guess something similar to a simple prism or diffraction grading would be one way to make more diy measurement with low budget but at totally other complexity level than shooting eg. a color chart.
Awesome! Thanks.
Oh fantastic, I love this video! Using your test image, I have a Fuji XE-1 converted to 590 nm InfraRed. That answers that question. Now that I know this, what are the practical implications on my IR photography?
590 nm filters offer a normal amount of color saturation into foliage. This means that when looking for compositions, you will want to find a balance between three key elements: sky/clouds, colorful foliage, and neutral elements (those that do not reflect color and appear more grayscale). Too much foliage could make for a bland oversaturated image. The foliage doesn't always need to be the star, it could be used as a framing or backgrounds element for a neutral subject. Look for contrast between these three types of subjects.
Thanks!
Amazing information! Is there a filter that will allow us to see milky way in a semi light polluted city like in orange area?
You could get a dual-band filter that passes H-alpha and O3 narrow bands. Or look for a light pollution filter that blocks the wavelengths commonly emitted by city lights.
@@robshea Thanks a lot!
'how can we see the color purple on the 830 mm filter? If it's blocking all visable light, how can we even see a screen, and not just black?
On a converted camera, the sensor can detect light up to around 1,000 nm. But sensors can only assign colors to red, green, and blue. Since they don't know how to interpret IR light, it gets assigned to visible light colors.
What is an infrared blocking filter and how does it differ from an IR Chrome filter?
A high-pass filter, allows wavelengths above the stated value to pass. For example, a 590 nm IR filter allows wavelengths above 590nm, orange, red, and infrared, to pass. IR Chrome is a special dual-bandpass filter which allows light from two ranges to pass, blue and infrared light, while blocking light in between.
hi can you do this type of video again with more filter
I planning to run this test again with a different method. Let me know if you have any specific filters you'd like to see tested.
@@robshea I would love a filter that around in lower part of the spectrum. And maybe DIY filter that people made from film roll. Thank you, sir.
If a 25 red filter were to be placed on a 590nm converted camera, what would the result be(in nm)? Would I get the same result if placed on a non-converted camera (and processed in Photoshop to get a more normal color balance)? How about an orange or green filter?
A red 25 filter is essentially a 590nm filter, so placed on a 590nm converted camera, it would have no effect. Using either a 590nm or 25 red filter on an unconverted camera would result in an image filled with red and orange visible light, but no noticeable IR due to the internal hot mirror filter. You will get no noticeable IR light when using an orange or green filter on an unconverted camera. With an unconverted camera, you will need a 720nm or higher filter in order to capture IR light.
@@robshea Thanks Rob.
well i think i have a 690, or 720, but i have a canon 2000 eos what is a good exposure time? how do i custom white balance, my leaves are still green whenever i take a pic with my filter, no matter if i custom white balance on camera. can you help me?
For an unconverted camera, the typical exposure time would be around 5-20 seconds, assuming low ISO and f/5.6. If you are seeing green in your leaves, then your filter may be allowing too much visible light to pass. Do you know what brand it is?
@@robshea it doesnt say what brand. i know when i took the filter test, it had to be from 590 to 720, when i put it on my samsung a71 smartphone, it works great. it is 52-58mm. now do samsung phones, automatically custom balance? what do i do?
@@56jklove If you use a 590 nm filter on an unconverted camera, such as a smartphone, you will only get visible light and no IR. This could be why you are still seeing green when using the filter. If you shoot raw, you can WB while editing. To WB in-camera, you will need an app that supports it, such as Lightroom mobile.
@@robshea i think my lens is a 720, because it works fine when its on my smartphone, but on my regular camera, i still see green, is there a way i can email the photos
What is your camera's subject ? A monitor screen or is it a physical print on paper ?
Regardless, if it's a monitor, you do NOT have the full spectrum, just the monitor's primaries of Red, Green, and Blue. The Magenta, Cyan, and Yellows that you see on the monitor are not physically there, your brain is combining the Red, Green, and Blue to yield a perception of the Magenta, Cyan, and Yellow. Your camera has no brain, it can not manifest a combination of monitor primaries into perceptive colors. That is why your 550nm filter simply blocks Blue. The other colors are just your brains blending of the monitor's Red and Green.
If your subject is a paper print, again, this is not a full spectrum, you are seeing the blending of Magenta, Cyan, Yellow, and Black Inks and again it's your brain which is creating the experience you have of the other colors.
If you really want to see the spectral properties of a visible light filter or of an infrared light filter, start with a pure white spectrum such as a halogen lamp projector, narrow the beam of light with a vertical slit aperture, then spread the spectrum out with an optical glass prism. Project the resulting spectrum onto a white screen and photograph this with your filter collection.
If you need a more definitive spectral measure of a filter's performance, get yourself a spectrometer. There are many available.
www.amazon.com/Sekonic-SpectroMaster-C-7000-Bundle-Kit/dp/B081ZJMFBQ/