Infrared - what really works in LF ?

[Joel Truckenbrod]

i shoot efke 820 often in the spring and summer, with the r72 filter i expose it at 3, its the closest thing you will get to the HIE, its a great film, here is an example, no post processing

Looks great. Wonderful image. Do you find the film to be pretty grainy? That's my primary concern in trying it out myself.

[polyglot]

I use the IR820 too and yes it is grainy. I find it improves a little if you use a solvent developer like XTOL. Keep in mind that the longer wavelength means you get about half the resolution (due to diffraction) that you would from green light at a given aperture, so the lack of film resolution isn't a huge loss.

NB the dramatically upswept H-D curve on IR820 though. Makes the results very dependent on exposure but if you get it right, the result is shadow detail forever and bright sparkly highlights.

[uphereinmytree]

hi, I've been shooting efke IR820 for many years and hope they keep making it so please shoot more of it. I rate the speed at 3 in the summer and 1.5 or less in the winter. It is available, but a bit more expensive than other films. I use a 092 B+W deep red filter. It is not as dark as a hoya r72 filter and tends to lessen the infrared effect enough that people don't immediately say 'oh infrared' It's even less obvious when there is no foliage in the image. It's really the only film I shoot so I don't want the strong IR look although there is nothing wrong with strong IR and it's so beautiful. It has a lot of reciprocity failure and it's sometimes hard to get enough shadow detail.

[Gary Tarbert]

asa, film speed 3 on your light meter.

I am glad he asked that question , i didn't know the speed and assumed you meant zone system 3 . Regards Gary

[Gary Tarbert]

i shoot efke 820 often in the spring and summer, with the r72 filter i expose it at 3, its the closest thing you will get to the HIE, its a great film, here is an example, no post processing


old abandoned rail road by J. Golden, on Flickr

hi , Have you posted this on any of the image forums it really is very good . Regards Gary

[Brian Ellis]

You're certainly not locked into those combinations but you can use those combinations or pretty much any other film and filter you like, scan it, and create your infrared look in Photoshop. I prefer doing it that way because of the control over the final "look" it gives you.

[Roger Cole]

hi , Have you posted this on any of the image forums it really is very good . Regards Gary

+1.

Is this the Aura version of Efke IR820? In 35mm and 120 the price is the same but in 4x5 the Aura is almost twice as expensive as the non-Aura version. I've heard some people say it makes a real difference and others say it doesn't.

[vinny]

Any problems of the film fogging in the holders with various darkslides? I know some older holders seemed to have darkslides that were not infra-red light tight - per friends who had them.

No more issues than with regular film. I've had some holder that leak when shooting verticals. After inspecting the holder, I could see up through the end of the light trap, on more than one holder.
It should be noted that some bellows are not suitable for infrared work. Your film will be badly fogged. My shenhao was fine but the two chamonix 4x5's I've owned aren't. I have to switch to the shenhao bag bellows (leather) on my chamonix whenever I shoot IR. Usually I forget about it until I'm breaking the camera down. If anyone finds a ir proof bellows replacement for the chamonix, let me know. I've asked the guy selling bellows overseas on ebay but no luck.

[ImSoNegative]

hi , Have you posted this on any of the image forums it really is very good . Regards Gary

no i havnt posted this in LFF because its 6x9, though it was shot with a 4x5 camera . i think its about 12.00 a roll

[polyglot]

PS, see eBay 110734567127. I bought four boxes from this guy (he has about 70 left), it's IR820, in good condition and cheap. Think I might buy a few more boxes next pay for the purpose of stocking up, given that it's often 2x as much elsewhere.