Stop Here on Infrared – Yellowstone NP, WY – Fujifilm X100V – “Black & White Infrared”
Infrared photographing is capturing light beyond the visible spectrum. It requires special film, or a digital sensor that has had the infrared filter removed. Any digital camera has the potential to be infrared sensitive, but the process isn’t easy or cheap. Full spectrum photography is similar to infrared, but also includes ultraviolet and visible light (not just infrared light). With full spectrum photography you can choose by the use of filters which light you want to capture. You can use filters with infrared, too, to control what light comes through, but not to the extent of full-spectrum. A characteristic of both infrared and full-spectrum in black-and-white is deep contrast, with dark skies and white foliage. One of my favorite photographers is Mitch Dobrowner, who converted his Canon cameras to full-spectrum for dramatic monochrome storm photography.
When I purchased my Fujifilm X-T1, I had the intentions of converting it to full-spectrum, but the cost of the conversion has prevented me from doing it. I still hope to do so, maybe later this year or perhaps next year. We’ll see. But I figured out a way to simulate something that’s in the neighborhood of infrared or full-spectrum on my Fujifilm X100V without any conversions. In the right light and with the right subject, it can be quite convincing! Even though you are only using the visible spectrum of light, it can appear as though you are actually doing infrared photography. Amazing!
Even in situations where this recipe doesn’t resemble infrared or full-spectrum, it will still produce a dramatic, high-contrast look that you might find appealing. Those who have said that Acros+R doesn’t actually resemble the use of a red filter on black-and-white film will appreciate these settings. Many landscape photographers, including Ansel Adams, employed a red filter to achieve a dark sky (for example, Moonrise Over Hernandez).
White Tree Black Sky – West Valley City, UT – Fujifilm X100V – “Black & White Infrared”
The trick is to use a low Kelvin white balance in conjunction with a dramatic white balance shift when using Acros+R. I got the idea from Fuji X Weekly reader James Clinich, who uses between 3800K and 4500K with a 0 Red & +8 shift to achieve a darker sky, which is something you can apply to other B&W recipes if you’d like to better mimic the use of a red filter. I just took his idea a step further to make it even more dramatic for this recipe.
My Black & White Infrared film simulation recipe can be difficult to use. I find that it doesn’t always work well. It can be very tough to gauge the best exposure, and I’ve had to go anywhere from -1 to +3 on the exposure compensation dial to get it right. It’s one of the more difficult to use recipes that I’ve created, yet it is highly rewarding. If you like dramatic black and white photographs, you’ll want to give this one a try! As of this writing, it’s only compatible with the Fujifilm X100V, X-Pro3 and X-T4 cameras.
Acros+R
Dynamic Range: DR200
Highlight: +4
Shadow: +3
B&W Toning: 0
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -4
Clarity: +5
Grain Effect: Strong, Large
Color Chrome Effect: Off
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Off
White Balance: 2750K, -5 Red & +9 Blue
ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs using this Black & White Infrared film simulation recipe on my Fujifilm X100V:
Crafts & Hobbies – West Valley City, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Cloud Above The Wall – Draper, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Flags Over IKEA Infrared – Draper, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Pinnacle – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Suburban Abstract – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Suites – West Valley City, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Paved Paradise – West Valley City, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Accessible Parking – West Valley City, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Done Shopping – West Valley City, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Soda Glass – West Valley City, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Couch Stripes – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Flowers in the Sky – Big Sky, MT – Fujifilm X100V
Grey Hills – Red Rock Lakes NWR, MT – Fujifilm X100V
Abandoned Dream Infrared – Red Rock Lakes NWR, MT – Fujifilm X100V
Abandoned House by the Hill IR – Red Rock Lakes NWR, MT – Fujifilm X100V
Henry’s Fork River – Island Park, ID – Fujifilm X100V
Upper Red Rock Lake IR – Red Rock Lakes NWR, MT – Fujifilm X100V
Red Rock Road Monochrome – Red Rock Lakes NWR, MT – Fujifilm X100V
Aspen Leaves Infrared – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Illuminated Tree – West Valley City, UT – Fujifilm X100V
Infrared Tree – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100V
See also: Film Simulation Recipes
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This is an interesting take on near-infrared photography. Most of us do this with a lens filter that blocks most of the visible spectrum (like 750nm) and custom white balance set with a white card and the filter. This can give some great odd-colour shots which can be desaturated to B&W. Some people will go further with a lot of post-processing tricks to get the dramatic end results. The exposure times tend to be very long unless you can turn the ISO way up and don’t mind the resulting noise. Although infrared is fun to play with, most people probably won’t use it enough to justify the cost of full camera conversion. Here’s some of my experiments: https://marcbeebe.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/the-infrared-zone/
Thank you for sharing! I find the odd color shifts to be interesting. It would be cool to create a color faux IR recipe, but I don’t think that’s particularly practical or possible.
Some of the landscape photos are stunning, almost surreal-looking
Thank you!
Your first photo “Stop Here on Infrared” is terrific. The black sky gives it a very ominous feel. There also a small cloud formation to the left just above the larger clouds which looks like a ghostly figure with arms spread floating upward.
Thanks! That cloud is a bit ghostly looking, isn’t it?
Great!
I tried true red/orange filters on the fuji the other day for the first time.
Many say don’t bother but strikingly different. I would say its a bit like they’ve used a hue-saturation slider and I’ve noticed weird highlights on the higher DR settings.
Nonetheless couldn’t resist using both the physical and film mode filters at once. (ansel Adams maybe-because I didn’t have a DEEP red filter, just a cheap Neewer set)
But excellent tip with white balance. I tried making that shift to red many times. Obviously wrong idea!
As I understand it the signal flow is WB—>red film simulation.
So makes perfect sense now—if you make it all red with WB it passes it all through actually allowing more to pass through filter. If you make it all blue it rejects more of it, such as sky and pronounces the effect except for truly reddish and whitish things!
Of course it does-I’ve had it all inverse-blue skies usually would mean more pronounced effect so send blue into red!
Excellent Job. Other than clarity I wonder if it will work on the x-trans III?
I just checked. Maybe not quite as convincing, but it definitely works.
Sweet, I will add to my list in my cheat sheet. Definitely trying this one this weekend.
Just programmed into my X100V, took first picture, lovin’ it already!
I’m following your blog since I bought my X100, my first Fuji camera, about 2 months ago. Thank you so much for all the inspiration, and all the useful and wonderful recipes, specifically! Please keep it coming! 🙂
Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback and kind words!
And here’s a selection of shots that I did with this recipe:
https://jimilo.de/f8/index.php?album=Fuji/Infrared
Average pics from an average photographer. But so probably showing well what someone like me can do with this recipe 😉
I’ve linked back your site, @Ritschie. Let me know if this is not ok with you.
That’s awesome! Thank you for sharing! I’m glad that you like the recipe!
Thank you Ritchie!
You are welcome!
I often use a R72 filter on my stock Fuji X-100s to take IR photos. Has something changed on the newer models that makes the IR filter not work anymore?
I haven’t tried. I know that some camera sensors are more IR sensitive than others. The X100S has an X-Trans II sensor, and I have heard that X-Trans II does have some IR sensitivity despite having an IR filter. But I don’t know about the other sensors. I’ll have to give the R72 filter a try.
This has been a huge help, many thanks. This camera is nothing short of outstanding. It’s now just up to me to live up to its capabilities and this recipe will go a long way to help me achieve that goal!
You are welcome! I appreciate the feedback!
is there any way to replicate this recipe on XT-3
You can (just disregard Clarity), but it won’t look exactly the same (pretty close, though). You might have to set Shadow to +4.
Thankyou so why don’t you make recipes from r xt3 like old models still need the recipes
I just published one, called Chrome Bypass, very recently. I’m working on more for sure. I think nearly ever bank on my X-T30, X100V, X-E4 and X-T1 are filled will experimental recipes. Not every one will make it to this blog, but many of them will eventually. The biggest limitation is time, unfortunately.
I’m not able to replicate the same results like the dark sky and what should I do
The White Balance (and WB Shift) is critical to this recipe, so double-check that it is correct. The other tricky thing is the exposure. I found that it can vary greatly, so try adjusting it (reducing or increasing, but probably reducing) until it looks right. Hopefully this helps.
Hi, do you have any recommended recipe for full spectrum X100v camera.
I don’t. I’ve never used a full spectrum digital camera (Fujifilm or otherwise). But I’d love to hear any discoveries that you might make 😀
I made some test with X100V in full spectrum using your KODACHROME 64 recipe, herewith my instagram link https://www.instagram.com/antonio.campofreddo/
That looks really interesting!