Hi,

I have a question about Kodak HIE Infrared film. First, has anyone used it? I have, once or twice, and I always shot outdoors w/ good sunlight. What I'm wondering is if you can successfully shoot this film indoors and still get that eery infrared glow.

It's my understanding that it responds to infrared radiation and i'm not sure if there is an indoors.

Also, what's a good ASA to start with? Last time, I used 400 ASA by accident but got some good results....maybe I should just stick with that, huh?

Thanks in advance.

Erin

-- Erin C. (ericon_22@hotmail.com), February 24, 2000

Answers

No. You will not get the effect you desire indoors.

-- (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), February 25, 2000.

There is infrared radiation in tungsten light, but the effect is far away from the typical infrared effects you get in sunshine. Mostly, you will get very grainy negatives with very smooth skin tones.

There is a good book on infrared by Laurie White. It is not too expensive. I suggest you read it.

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), February 25, 2000.

i've used HIE indoors with good results, as have some other photographers i know.

use BARE incandescent lightbulbs as your lightsource--lamps with the shades removed, some of those clamp-on worklights you can get at home despot, etc. they put out a lot of infrared. also, strobes allegedly put out a lot of infrared, but i've never tried them. i've heard you can actually use strobes with infrared filters over them, so you won't have a huge flash of light with every shot, thus preventing the film from recording visible light.

rate it at 200 iso with no filtration. rate it at 50 iso if you using a red-25 filter. you'll have to have a heck of a lot of light, if you're going to rate at 50, though, so i'd go without a filter.

doing this you'll get a really soft, grainy image with nice, even skin tones. i don't know what you'll get if you're not shooting people.

good luck.

-- brad daly (bwdaly@hiwaay.net), February 25, 2000.

Electronic flash (strobe), does indeed give out a lot of infra-red radiation. Sunpak used to do a version of their 5000 hammerhead gun with an infra-red filter permanently over the tube, I think it was designed for surveillance use. If a visible flash is no problem, a filter over the camera lens should have the same effect.

I've just checked, and Sunpak still list an infra-red head for their 622 professional gun.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 28, 2000.

A double layer of unexposed developed slide film (e.g. the ends of a roll) taped over the flash makes a very effective (and cheap) IR filter for invisible flash -- the two flash units I have tried both yield a guide number of about half the ISO 100 guide number with Kodak HIE.

-- John Lehman (ffjal@uaf.edu), February 29, 2000.

Try an infared heat lamp as your lightsource, it gives quite a good effect indoors and it also helps that sore back !! Drawback is it gets fairly hot though

-- Rob Sharkey (sharkey@acenet.net.au), March 01, 2000.

Tungsten film has much more infra red light in it (compared to visible light) than daylight does. Hence it's effective film speed is higher under tungsten lights (see tech data sheets at eastman website). And strobelight is (generally) more rich in ultraviolet (which is why many manufacturers sell uv filters with their heads) and lower in infrared.

Ultimately, the answer is to do some careful testing with your equipment, before pursuing important imagery... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), March 05, 2000.

good light sources: plant day-glo light bulbs (for plants and reptiles) or just tip your toaster on its side and turn it on(works but don't recommend it!!!), or use "hot-lights" (no not the expensive studio hot lights) the cheap $10 halogen work lights you buy at Kmart, I myself play with active light sources instead of a flash, saves me some guess work and is much more fun...

"sit your partner in front of the stove! turn it on and watch it glow!"

Jason

-- Jason Tuck (jtuck80@csi.com), November 18, 2000.