This is largely a test post. I'm dragging myself kicking and screaming into the new era of online communications. If I've done things correctly, both my facebook account and twitter feed should provide some sort of announcement when new material posts to this blog.
That doesn't mean that they will, of course, but they should.
To keep this from being a totally wasted post, you'll find a picture below the fold. It's a recent experiment with an IR filter I picked up a while back.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years'…
I only started using FriendFeed a few months ago because other people at the Science in the 21st Century workshop were documenting the conference on it. I quickly became a fan of the service, which not only added an extra dimension to the meeting, but has also been a continuing source of…
As I go through my daily routine, I find myself sort of out of phase with a lot of the Internet. My peak online hours are from about six to ten in the morning, Eastern US time. That's when I get up, have breakfast, and then go to Starbucks to write for a few hours.
This means that most of the…
The kerfuffle over the Bayblab incident has produced no end of discussion here and elsewhere. Hilariously, this included a lengthy discussion of why they see ScienceBlogs as cliquish, conducted entirely in the private back-channel forum that nobody else can read. Irony: it's like gold-y and bronze-…
How difficult is it to take IR pictures like this? Do you basically just need to slap on a filter, or is there a bit more to it?
There's a little more to it, but not a huge amount. At a minimum, you're going to need a tripod and (most likely) a bulb control for the shutter.
IR filters are basically opaque to visible light. Once you put the filter on, you can't see anything through the camera. This means that it's typically necessary to line up the shot with the camera on a tripod, then attach the filter and take the shot.
A second issue that pops up is exposure length. Most dSLR cameras have an IR-blocking filter over the sensor. This greatly reduces the sensor's sensitivity to IR and requires very long exposure times. (That picture was a 150-second exposure at f/11.) Most dSLRs will only allow you to set exposure lengths of up to 30 sec. Anything longer requires bulb control.
That doesn't seem too bad. I have been using a tripod and shutter remote for taking nighttime pictures, so I think I have the basic technique down.
Thanks!
Why f/11, Mike?
I see no depth of field concern for this image. Or was it because the IR focal point is unpredictably offset from the visible?