K
Kenny Nyhus Fadil
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Should you convert a camera for infrared, or just screw a dark filter onto the lens you already own? For most people curious about infrared black and white, the filter comes first. A conversion permanently changes a body; a filter costs a fraction of that and comes off again when you are done.
The whole choice comes down to one piece of glass. Every normal digital camera carries a filter over the sensor that blocks infrared. A conversion swaps that filter for one that lets a chosen slice of infrared through. The screw-on route leaves the camera alone, and instead puts a nearly opaque filter on the lens that blocks visible light up to a set wavelength. Hoya’s R72, for example, blocks visible light up to 720nm and transmits roughly 95% between 760nm and 860nm, according to the listing at Cathay Photo.
I keep my own X-T5 colour-native. So this is the decision as I would walk it before giving up a body, and I have not given one up. If you are still working out why a plain colour filter changes grey tones in a normal picture, the earlier piece on red, yellow and orange filters is the right warm-up, and the full tonal framework is in the black and white photography guide.
Infrared turns green foliage pale and glowing, sends blue sky toward black, and gives clouds a heavy, sculpted look. Leaves reflect near-infrared strongly, so a summer forest renders almost white, a look photographers call the Wood effect, as described in the Wikipedia overview of infrared photography.
The picture works as black and white because infrared light is invisible to your eye, so there is no colour to preserve in the usual sense. Raw files from a converted camera come out reddish or magenta-brown, and you either channel-swap them into false colour or desaturate them into monochrome. To my eye, monochrome is the better use of these files.
Water goes dark. Skin turns smooth and slightly porcelain, and haze all but disappears because scattered visible light is not part of the capture. A hot, bright, cloudless day that would bore you in colour is exactly the day infrared wants.
Overcast days flatten it.
Think about what the subject will do. Trees, grass, hedgerows and ferns are the stars. Brick, concrete and bare earth stay unremarkable. Before buying anything, ask whether your usual walks have enough leaf-covered ground to justify the effort. If they do not, infrared stays a seasonal experiment.
A screw-on filter such as the Hoya R72 needs no modification and works on any body, but it forces very long exposures and a tripod. A converted camera shoots at normal hand-held speeds with the viewfinder fully usable.
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With the screw-on route, the filter is so dark that the viewfinder or screen shows almost nothing. You compose first without the filter, lock the tripod, fit the filter, and then take a long exposure while the camera sensor still sees through its own factory infrared block. Focus before the filter, too. I trust autofocus right up until a dark filter is on and the viewfinder goes black, and only then remember I should have focused first. The factory block is the real problem: the sensor was designed to reject most of the infrared you want, so you pay for it with time. Mirrorless live view helps a little, since you can brighten the preview, but the workflow stays slow and moving subjects blur.
A conversion removes the factory filter and installs a replacement chosen for the look you want. Since the sensor is no longer fighting you, shutter speeds are close to a normal picture, and you can see through the lens as usual with the camera’s own preview. The price is permanence. A converted body is an infrared body, and it will not render ordinary colour correctly any more unless you chose a full-spectrum swap and pair it with filters.
That last point is where the coloured glass comes back in. A full-spectrum body, with no filter in front of the sensor, takes any filter you screw on; the Hoya listing mentions R25, K2 and O colour filters used alongside the R72 to alter how infrared renders. A fixed-wavelength conversion locks you into one look. Full-spectrum keeps your options open, and hands you a drawer of filters to manage.
My rule is to buy the lowest-commitment option first. Rent or borrow a filter, shoot ten summer afternoons, and see whether you reach for it again. A conversion only makes sense after the novelty has survived that test.
Convert an older or second body you do not mind committing, not your main camera. Mirrorless bodies are the easier fit, since they focus on the sensor and need no separate calibration after the filter swap.
On a DSLR the autofocus module sits behind the mirror and sees visible light, so infrared focus lands at a different plane and the converter has to calibrate it. On a mirrorless camera the sensor does the focusing, so what you see is close to what you get. That is the single biggest reason mirrorless bodies suit this hobby.
Lenses matter just as much as bodies. Some lenses develop a faint bright spot in the middle of the frame under infrared, caused by internal reflections that do not exist in visible light. Whether yours does is not predictable from the spec sheet; it has to be tested. If you shoot Fujifilm, the primes I rely on most are my XF 23mm f/1.4 and XF 35mm f/1.4, and I would test those first on any borrowed IR body. A wide prime that is clean in visible light can still bloom in the centre.
Focus is the other trap. Infrared wavelengths focus at a slightly different distance than visible ones, and older manual lenses sometimes carry a red infrared focus mark. Many modern lenses do not. Stop down to f/8 or so, where depth of field forgives the shift. Check the result at 100% on the back of the camera before you leave the spot, because a shift you miss in the field becomes a soft print at home.
Shoot raw, set a custom white balance on green grass, and expose to the right while watching the histogram. Then convert to monochrome in post, and use the channel mixer to decide which parts of the file become light and which become dark.
A custom white balance taken off sunlit foliage pulls the heavy red cast back toward neutral so you can judge the exposure. In post, the files reward the same logic described on the channel mixer page: pull from the channel that holds the most detail, and use the others to nudge sky and shade. Because the file is so lopsided in colour, the blue channel often holds the cleanest sky tone, but check yours. Don’t take my word for it.
Exposure is easier than it sounds on a converted body. Use the histogram, not the preview, and let the highlights sit a touch below clipping, the same ETTR habit as in visible-light work. In the screw-on route, test a short exposure and a longer one at the same aperture, and see which has the better shadow detail. Noise from long sensor exposures can appear on a warm summer day, so keep the sessions short.
If you are comparing the finished tone to what you would get from a normal black and white conversion, the trick is to remember that infrared already did half the tonal work for you. Over-processing it with strong contrast curves flattens the glow that is the whole point of the picture. The light rules from light and shadow in monochrome still apply; infrared changes the tones, not the need for good light.
It is worth it if you already like landscape work in leafy seasons and enjoy a slow, deliberate workflow. It is poor value if you want one camera that does everything, or if your usual subjects are indoors, urban or winter-bare.
Money-wise, the screw-on filter is the cheapest way in, and prices swing between sellers, so compare a few before you buy. A conversion is a larger and permanent commitment, and it makes more sense on a spare body than on the one you shoot every week. I would not touch my main camera for it, and I would rather keep a normal landscape workflow clean, as set out in the landscape photography guide.
A last practical note: ask for a calibration or a test shot from any converter you use, and keep your original filter if they return it. If the camera’s sensor-stabilisation or sensor cleaning matters to you, ask whether they have worked on your exact model before.
If I were starting today, I would borrow an R72, shoot a pine and birch wood on a hot, dry July afternoon, and process one frame properly. If that single frame makes you want ten more, then start pricing a body. If it does not, you have saved yourself a lot of money for the price of one tripod walk.
Yes. A dark infrared filter such as the Hoya R72 screws onto the lens and blocks visible light. The camera’s own infrared block still reduces the signal, so exposures are long and a tripod is needed.
Leaves reflect near-infrared light strongly, so they record as very bright tones. This is often called the Wood effect, and it is why green landscapes turn pale and glowing in infrared black and white.
Generally yes, because a mirrorless camera focuses using the image sensor itself. A DSLR focuses with a separate module that sees visible light, so a converted DSLR needs focus calibration.
A fixed infrared conversion makes ordinary colour pictures unreliable. A full-spectrum conversion keeps flexibility, but you then need filters on the lens to control which light reaches the sensor.
The whole choice comes down to one piece of glass. Every normal digital camera carries a filter over the sensor that blocks infrared. A conversion swaps that filter for one that lets a chosen slice of infrared through. The screw-on route leaves the camera alone, and instead puts a nearly opaque filter on the lens that blocks visible light up to a set wavelength. Hoya’s R72, for example, blocks visible light up to 720nm and transmits roughly 95% between 760nm and 860nm, according to the listing at Cathay Photo.
I keep my own X-T5 colour-native. So this is the decision as I would walk it before giving up a body, and I have not given one up. If you are still working out why a plain colour filter changes grey tones in a normal picture, the earlier piece on red, yellow and orange filters is the right warm-up, and the full tonal framework is in the black and white photography guide.
What Does Infrared Black and White Look Like?
Infrared turns green foliage pale and glowing, sends blue sky toward black, and gives clouds a heavy, sculpted look. Leaves reflect near-infrared strongly, so a summer forest renders almost white, a look photographers call the Wood effect, as described in the Wikipedia overview of infrared photography.
The picture works as black and white because infrared light is invisible to your eye, so there is no colour to preserve in the usual sense. Raw files from a converted camera come out reddish or magenta-brown, and you either channel-swap them into false colour or desaturate them into monochrome. To my eye, monochrome is the better use of these files.
Water goes dark. Skin turns smooth and slightly porcelain, and haze all but disappears because scattered visible light is not part of the capture. A hot, bright, cloudless day that would bore you in colour is exactly the day infrared wants.
Overcast days flatten it.
Think about what the subject will do. Trees, grass, hedgerows and ferns are the stars. Brick, concrete and bare earth stay unremarkable. Before buying anything, ask whether your usual walks have enough leaf-covered ground to justify the effort. If they do not, infrared stays a seasonal experiment.
Conversion or Screw-On Filter: Which Route Makes Sense?
A screw-on filter such as the Hoya R72 needs no modification and works on any body, but it forces very long exposures and a tripod. A converted camera shoots at normal hand-held speeds with the viewfinder fully usable.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
With the screw-on route, the filter is so dark that the viewfinder or screen shows almost nothing. You compose first without the filter, lock the tripod, fit the filter, and then take a long exposure while the camera sensor still sees through its own factory infrared block. Focus before the filter, too. I trust autofocus right up until a dark filter is on and the viewfinder goes black, and only then remember I should have focused first. The factory block is the real problem: the sensor was designed to reject most of the infrared you want, so you pay for it with time. Mirrorless live view helps a little, since you can brighten the preview, but the workflow stays slow and moving subjects blur.
A conversion removes the factory filter and installs a replacement chosen for the look you want. Since the sensor is no longer fighting you, shutter speeds are close to a normal picture, and you can see through the lens as usual with the camera’s own preview. The price is permanence. A converted body is an infrared body, and it will not render ordinary colour correctly any more unless you chose a full-spectrum swap and pair it with filters.
That last point is where the coloured glass comes back in. A full-spectrum body, with no filter in front of the sensor, takes any filter you screw on; the Hoya listing mentions R25, K2 and O colour filters used alongside the R72 to alter how infrared renders. A fixed-wavelength conversion locks you into one look. Full-spectrum keeps your options open, and hands you a drawer of filters to manage.
My rule is to buy the lowest-commitment option first. Rent or borrow a filter, shoot ten summer afternoons, and see whether you reach for it again. A conversion only makes sense after the novelty has survived that test.
Which Camera Body and Lens Should You Convert?
Convert an older or second body you do not mind committing, not your main camera. Mirrorless bodies are the easier fit, since they focus on the sensor and need no separate calibration after the filter swap.
On a DSLR the autofocus module sits behind the mirror and sees visible light, so infrared focus lands at a different plane and the converter has to calibrate it. On a mirrorless camera the sensor does the focusing, so what you see is close to what you get. That is the single biggest reason mirrorless bodies suit this hobby.
Lenses matter just as much as bodies. Some lenses develop a faint bright spot in the middle of the frame under infrared, caused by internal reflections that do not exist in visible light. Whether yours does is not predictable from the spec sheet; it has to be tested. If you shoot Fujifilm, the primes I rely on most are my XF 23mm f/1.4 and XF 35mm f/1.4, and I would test those first on any borrowed IR body. A wide prime that is clean in visible light can still bloom in the centre.
Focus is the other trap. Infrared wavelengths focus at a slightly different distance than visible ones, and older manual lenses sometimes carry a red infrared focus mark. Many modern lenses do not. Stop down to f/8 or so, where depth of field forgives the shift. Check the result at 100% on the back of the camera before you leave the spot, because a shift you miss in the field becomes a soft print at home.
What Settings and Workflow Give Clean Infrared Files?
Shoot raw, set a custom white balance on green grass, and expose to the right while watching the histogram. Then convert to monochrome in post, and use the channel mixer to decide which parts of the file become light and which become dark.
A custom white balance taken off sunlit foliage pulls the heavy red cast back toward neutral so you can judge the exposure. In post, the files reward the same logic described on the channel mixer page: pull from the channel that holds the most detail, and use the others to nudge sky and shade. Because the file is so lopsided in colour, the blue channel often holds the cleanest sky tone, but check yours. Don’t take my word for it.
Exposure is easier than it sounds on a converted body. Use the histogram, not the preview, and let the highlights sit a touch below clipping, the same ETTR habit as in visible-light work. In the screw-on route, test a short exposure and a longer one at the same aperture, and see which has the better shadow detail. Noise from long sensor exposures can appear on a warm summer day, so keep the sessions short.
If you are comparing the finished tone to what you would get from a normal black and white conversion, the trick is to remember that infrared already did half the tonal work for you. Over-processing it with strong contrast curves flattens the glow that is the whole point of the picture. The light rules from light and shadow in monochrome still apply; infrared changes the tones, not the need for good light.
Is Infrared Black and White Worth the Cost and the Trouble?
It is worth it if you already like landscape work in leafy seasons and enjoy a slow, deliberate workflow. It is poor value if you want one camera that does everything, or if your usual subjects are indoors, urban or winter-bare.
Money-wise, the screw-on filter is the cheapest way in, and prices swing between sellers, so compare a few before you buy. A conversion is a larger and permanent commitment, and it makes more sense on a spare body than on the one you shoot every week. I would not touch my main camera for it, and I would rather keep a normal landscape workflow clean, as set out in the landscape photography guide.
A last practical note: ask for a calibration or a test shot from any converter you use, and keep your original filter if they return it. If the camera’s sensor-stabilisation or sensor cleaning matters to you, ask whether they have worked on your exact model before.
If I were starting today, I would borrow an R72, shoot a pine and birch wood on a hot, dry July afternoon, and process one frame properly. If that single frame makes you want ten more, then start pricing a body. If it does not, you have saved yourself a lot of money for the price of one tripod walk.
Keep Exploring
- Black and White Photography: A Complete Guide to Seeing in Tone
- Red, Yellow and Orange Filters for Black and White Contrast
- Converting Color to Black and White: The Channel Mixer Approach
- Camera Lens Filters Explained: UV, CPL and ND
- How to Shoot for Black and White: Train Your Eye for Tone and Contrast
Can I shoot infrared without converting my camera?
Yes. A dark infrared filter such as the Hoya R72 screws onto the lens and blocks visible light. The camera’s own infrared block still reduces the signal, so exposures are long and a tripod is needed.
Why does foliage look white in infrared photos?
Leaves reflect near-infrared light strongly, so they record as very bright tones. This is often called the Wood effect, and it is why green landscapes turn pale and glowing in infrared black and white.
Do mirrorless cameras handle infrared focus better than DSLRs?
Generally yes, because a mirrorless camera focuses using the image sensor itself. A DSLR focuses with a separate module that sees visible light, so a converted DSLR needs focus calibration.
Does a conversion ruin the camera for normal photos?
A fixed infrared conversion makes ordinary colour pictures unreliable. A full-spectrum conversion keeps flexibility, but you then need filters on the lens to control which light reaches the sensor.