Digital infrared photography with Better Light large format digital cameras

Decades ago I did infrared photography with a 35mm camera using the traditional red IR filter. Now I am gradually realizing the potential of CCD digital sensors and digital imaging software to achieve special effects with digital cameras. This has led me to increased interest in large format tri-linear scanners. The BetterLight scan-back is especially adept at accomplishing infrared because you can so easily take off the IR filter. With most other digital cameras you can’t remove their IR filter from the sensor.

Michael Sullivan is a leader in using a BetterLight for digital infrared photography. It is from his white paper on the BetterLight.com website that you can find the most information.

Rollouts from BetterLight large format digital camera are utilized as test images for printing on the Durst Rho 800 Presto, a combo style UV-curable ink flatbed printer.

So Rebekah Corbin-Teich and I took the BetterLight over to the Northern Aegean island of Lemnos (Limnos), off the coast of Greece. It is reachable from Thessaloniki, where FLAAR is consultant to a growing giclee atelier of the Granis brothers.

Traveling internationally with a complete large format digital camera system is a test of everyone’s patience. Airport screeners are clueless, even in Europe. In Amsterdam they were convinced that the battery had easily accessible acid in it and that someone could attack passengers with this acid. This was about the stupidest waste of security that I have heard in recent time. Fortunately the pilot and First Officer of the plane had some brains and realized that Professor Hellmuth, and his battery, was no problem to anyone.

While on the subject of removing the filters from digital cameras

There is a unique B&W dedicated digital camera now available. This camera has the Bayer Pattern RGB filters removed. This is by no means a replacement whatsoever for using the BetterLight for infrared photography. The BetterLight can do panoramas which can be enlarged to immense sizes. And the BetterLight system can blend an infrared photograph with a full-color photograph to achieve superior results. You can’t do this with most medium format digital backs.

The B&W dedicated digital camera is medium format, not large format, and is a 1-shot CCD not a tri-linear scanning CCD. If you are passionate about B&W photography, you ought to consider them both. But for pure infrared digital photography, and for full-color digital photography, this is what the BetterLight system is really good at accomplishing.

And for doing B&W, the BetterLight can also be used, just use Channel Mixer option in Adobe Photoshop. Don’t use digital cameras in black-and-white mode; take the shot in color and transfer it in Adobe Photoshop. And here don’t use the auto mode change to Grayscale. Channel Mixer option is vastly superior.

Here is one of the photos that resulted from taking the BetterLight Super 6K-HS to Greece. It looks much better at full size (over a meter high by several meters long). This was our first use of the new USB version of BetterLight and our first use of the USB version with the pano head. We need more practice to synchronize the capture with the turntable rotation speed. Eduardo Sacayon, the manager of all FLAAR digital imaging hardware in Guatemala, is being trained by Michael Collette in BetterLight presently. We will do additional pano photography at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, from late July onward. We will also do some experimenting with B&W with the BetterLight this summer.

Most recently updated July 6, 2006.

First posted June 12, 2006.

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Medium Format Digital Camera Initiative For over 30 years Nicholas Hellmuth has used Rolleiflex and Hasselblad cameras to record the flora, fauna, and Maya archaeology of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Now, for the last six years, he is extending his medium format experience to digital photography. Since FLAAR works both in a studio as well as out on location, we are an ideal focus for judging portability. We have experience with large format digital scan backs (the excellent BetterLight) and we also use Nikon (D300) and Canon (EOS 5D) digital cameras. A full-service digital pro should have at least one medium format digital system and should consider large format digital options as well. FLAAR also has an 80-megapixel large format camera (yes, they do exist, we have a Cruse). Although we started with a Leaf Valeo 22 coupled with a Mamiya 645 AFD body and lenses, we are open to showcasing all bodies as well as other digital backs. Indeed we tested an Imacon 4-shot back on a Hasselblad H1 body. For a month (February 2006) it was possible to evaluate a MegaVision black-and-white dedicated back for fine art photography. We are also considering the Rolleiflex 6008 AF, one of the outstanding medium format cameras that still offers European precision. However in the last 40 years we have not received any Rollei (or Franke & Heidecke) equipment for evaluation, so we can comment only on the Hasselblad and Mamiya (loaned briefly two years ago by Mamiya America). Camera resellers or manufacturers who wish to have their cameras, lenses, and backs included in the digital photography evaluation initiative are welcome to send their equipment for evaluation. Curently all the medium format backs are coming from Global Imaging Inc, Greg Lamb, CEO (contact 800 787-9802, press 4, fax 212 722-0988). This is one of the few camera stores in the entire US or Canada that offers ALL major brands of medium format (so they have no incentive to push one brand over the other). However we are also open to receiving medium format backs directly from the manufacturer. Over 381,154 visitors came to this www.digital-photography.org web site to learn which cameras, lighting, tripods, and accessories have proven themselves during evaluation by FLAAR. Since we deliberately do not review low-end cameras, our reviews attract a sophisticated audience. The total "visit" count is 791.562 during 2007, but we prefer to use the visitor count, 381.154 as being more realistic. FLAAR is the de facto source of information on medium format digital cameras because we are university based, independent, blunt, and we are one of the few review sources that dares to review advertising specs, advertising claims, and advertising hype. We can afford to reveal all the pros and cons because FLAAR is a research institute. Photographers feel they can trust a university research professor who has devoted years to understanding the pros and cons of each aspect of a digital camera system and workflow. You can download our colorful FLAAR Reports on our medium format digital camera initiative.