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#1
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Reflector for infrared photography?
We have a digital camera that takes IR photos of animals at night when
they come by and trigger a sensor. The camera is IR sensitive and we have a separate IR light that lights up the scene. We'd like to improve the lighting by bouncing the IR light off a reflector, instead of directly lighting the subject. Do visible-light reflectors sold in camera shops reflect IR light? If not, what does? Thanks. |
#2
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Reflector for infrared photography?
jbk wrote:
We have a digital camera that takes IR photos of animals at night when they come by and trigger a sensor. The camera is IR sensitive and we have a separate IR light that lights up the scene. We'd like to improve the lighting by bouncing the IR light off a reflector, instead of directly lighting the subject. Do visible-light reflectors sold in camera shops reflect IR light? If not, what does? Thanks. You could try baking foil. That should pretty effectively reflect IR. If you crumple it up and spread it out you should also get a pretty evenly diffused 'light' off it. You might even be able to paint the surface dark so as not to spook the animals with a big shiny thing. Cheap to try out, so give it a go. I am just speculating about how effective this will be but it should work. jon |
#3
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Reflector for infrared photography?
In rec.photo.digital ZenDiver wrote:
jbk wrote: We have a digital camera that takes IR photos of animals at night when they come by and trigger a sensor. The camera is IR sensitive and we have a separate IR light that lights up the scene. We'd like to improve the lighting by bouncing the IR light off a reflector, instead of directly lighting the subject. Do visible-light reflectors sold in camera shops reflect IR light? If not, what does? Thanks. You could try baking foil. That should pretty effectively reflect IR. If you crumple it up and spread it out you should also get a pretty evenly diffused 'light' off it. You might even be able to paint the surface dark so as not to spook the animals with a big shiny thing. Cheap to try out, so give it a go. I am just speculating about how effective this will be but it should work. Look at the various materials through the live view of the IR camera, or if it doesn't have live view, snap and chimp. That will tell you how reflective they are. -- Chris Malcolm DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/] |
#4
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Reflector for infrared photography?
Joseph Meehan wrote:
I have not tried it, but the silver ones should. What is called infrared in photography is known as near infrared in spectroscopy. The radiation in the near infrared range is much more penetrating than visible light or infrared of longer wavelengths. A thin coating of silver on fabric may not work well. "jbk" wrote in message ... We have a digital camera that takes IR photos of animals at night when they come by and trigger a sensor. The camera is IR sensitive and we have a separate IR light that lights up the scene. We'd like to improve the lighting by bouncing the IR light off a reflector, instead of directly lighting the subject. Do visible-light reflectors sold in camera shops reflect IR light? If not, what does? Thanks. |
#5
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Reflector for infrared photography?
On Apr 8, 1:56 pm, jbk wrote:
We have a digital camera that takes IR photos of animals at night when they come by and trigger a sensor. The camera is IR sensitive and we have a separate IR light that lights up the scene. We'd like to improve the lighting by bouncing the IR light off a reflector, instead of directly lighting the subject. Do visible-light reflectors sold in camera shops reflect IR light? If not, what does? Thanks. Some do, some don't. Most metals oxidize rapidly with a clear/ transparent oxide coating. If that gets thick enough it can reduce the reflectivity of the metal a bit in even the near IR where the cameras work. Usually, however, the tarnish needs to get quite thick to reduce near IR reflectivity so if it looks untarnished and shiny, it will probably be okay. To be absolutely okay, professional IR folks use gold plated reflectors, but this is overkill for the occasional IR photographer. Gold is the "gold standard" for IR reflectivity. |
#6
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Reflector for infrared photography?
"ZenDiver" wrote in message ... jbk wrote: You could try baking foil. That should pretty effectively reflect IR. If you crumple it up and spread it out you should also get a pretty evenly diffused 'light' off it. I must admit that I was intrigued by your question, and even though I shoot almost entirely digital IR, I've never experimented with reflectors, since most of my stuff is shot during the daylight hours. So last night I made two reflectors, one with smooth aluminum foil, and one with crumpled foil. The smooth foil reflector worked great. The crumpled foil appeared to diffuse the light slightly, but did not reflect as much of the light onto my subject. So yes, aluminum foil works great. Hope this helps. -- Theo Benson, Grizzly Glen Photography |
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