Discovering Infrared Photography In 5 Steps
 1. History
In 1800 the English astronomer William Hershel
carried out experiments with light in his lab. A narrow beam of light
coming through the hole in thick curtains, was divided into the rainbow
spectrum with a prism. Putting down thermometers into different parts
of the spectrum, Hershel noticed that the temperature was rising higher
near the red end of the spectrum. But the thermometer, which had been
put aside, almost in darkness, also was showing the high temperature.
The astronomer made a conclusion that, besides the visible light, the sun beam contains one more different emission with strong energy. He called these invisible rays infrared, it means "beyond the red color".
picture by doc_snyder69
2. IR Filters
In the beginning we should mention that it's almost impossible to
dive into the mysterious world of infrared photography without IR
filters. Almost every company, which produces filters, has the IR model
in its proposition.
Here are some widespread models:
They all fit for IR shooting because they let pass the rays from 720 nm and longer.
If you don't want to buy an expensive infrared filter, you can make it yourself. Here is the homemade infrared filter tutorial.
3. Your Camera
In order to define if your camera fits the IR shooting, point any remote control to your camera lens in the dark room.
It's commonly known that remote control function is based on the IR
emission. So if your camera is sensitive to IR rays you'll see the light spot on your display and you can start IR shooting experiments. There are also special infrared cameras . 
4. Infrared Shooting Technique Usually a landscape photographer works during special hours, so called "blue hours ".
In the morning or in the evening the sun beams draw amazing long
shadows and add the volume to the shot. And it's very uneasy to shoot
during the daytime. When the sun is exactly above you, it's lighting is
very contrasting - so you will lose information in lights and shadows. But
if you are the happy owner of IR filter, you definitely won't be bored
in the afternoon, because the bright sun is the main source of IR rays.
- You don't need to darken the sky with Neutral Density (ND) filter , because it will be almost black.
- The textures will be revealed nicely.
- Foliage, illuminated brightly, will be very spectacular.
5. Tips for DSLR cameras
Unlike usual digital cameras, DSLR cameras have some problems with sighting and sharpening, as IR filters are non-transparent. It's rather troublesome to do focusing with the IR filter.
- Set your camera on a tripod , do sighting and framing. Then screw on the IR filter and, finally, shoot.
- Don't relay on autofocus. It takes into account only rays
of visible spectrum, while IR rays are refracted differently. So you
may focus with the help of a windowed distance scale, pointing the focus a bit closer than a real distance to the shooting object.
- Increase Depth Of Field (DOF) with the aperture value close to f/18-22.
- There is an IR focusing mark on some lenses. Use it, matching it with the distance scale.
- You should also cover the viewfinder to avoid the additional overexposure.
- Take several shots with exposure bias value in 1-2 eV, controlling the histogram (especially in the lights).
- Pay attention to the white balance , if you aren't shootin in RAW (you can easily change white balance preferences in any of RAW-converters). Ideal WB will be set on the illuminated leaves, as it will be much easier to get an appropriate result in infrared post processing, which is the topic of our next article .
 by DisGuyLa
HOYA RM72 filter and Photoshop.
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