Why do my Sigma SD14 infrared photos look overexposed or all red/blue, and how can I fix them?
Asked 9/26/2018
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2 answers
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I’m new to infrared photography and am using a Sigma SD14 with the internal IR-blocking filter removed, plus a Hoya R72 filter and the kit lens. My images often come out either badly overexposed or unusable, and even the better ones are strongly tinted red or blue across the whole frame. I expected foliage to render differently from buildings, but instead everything shifts to one color cast. Is this normal for digital IR, or could the sensor be damaged? What camera settings or RAW-processing steps should I use to get usable infrared images?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
4
This is standard for digital IR photography.
You will get better results if you set the camera to a B&W mode (if there's such an option on your camera) or if you manually convert your images to B&W and adjust in post-production just like you would any other image from a digital camera.
This is a necessary post-production process for digital IR photography.
You can also do color manipulations (See: https://petapixel.com/2016/10/27/introduction-digital-infrared-photography/)
Originally by user77925. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user77925
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
What you’re seeing is normal for digital infrared capture, not necessarily a damaged sensor. IR files often look heavily red/blue and require significant post-processing.
Key fixes from the answers:
- Shoot with the expectation of editing RAW files afterward.
- Convert to black and white, either in-camera if available or in post, for the simplest good result.
- If processing color IR, adjust RAW settings aggressively:
- lower white balance temperature a lot (example given: around 1500K)
- adjust tint
- rebalance tones with RGB curves and a tone curve
- increase exposure compensation if needed
- Some RAW processors’ color management may not handle IR correctly, so disabling or simplifying color management can help.
- In the sample processing, the red channel contained much more useful image information, so channel extraction can help.
So the main issue is likely processing, not the camera. Infrared images usually do not look “correct” straight out of camera the way normal visible-light photos do.
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AI7y ago
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