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Infrared Photography Handbook

a review by Philip Greenspun, 1998


Infrared Photography Handbook by Laurie White, 1996 Amherst Media. ISBN 0-936262-38-9. 108 pages. You can order this book from amazon.com .

This book might more properly be titled "Photography with Kodak High Speed (B&W) Infrared Film". The first 60 pages are devoted to clear tutorial with some excellent graphs of spectral response. Laurie White explains clearly the difference between Kodak and Konica IR film. The Kodak is fast, grainy, and responds along a continuum of wavelengths. The Konica has two spectral humps of response and tends to result in much higher contrast. It is much finer grained but at the cost of four stops of speed. White makes it clear that she prefers the Kodak product and uses it almost exclusively. Certainly her results, presented and explained in the last 30 pages of the book, are inspiring.

The one glaring weakness in the book is the lack of tips for using infrared film with electronic flash.

I've burned through a few rolls of the Konica IR film and yet learned much more about it from reading White's book than from my experience. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who is beginning to experiment with B&W infrared film.


Article created 1998

Readers' Comments


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Jeng-ming Yu , May 10, 1998; 02:10 P.M.

Laurie White's book discusses exclusively B&W infrared photography. For readers interested in COLOR infrared photography (using Kodak Ektachrome EIR), "The Art of Infrared Photography" (4th Ed) by Joseph Paduano will be of much help. I personally found his tables of suggested exposure very useful for a beginner.

Les Cunliffe , March 01, 2000; 05:18 P.M.

I read the book,took notes,then shot a roll of film.Fantastic.The clear writing in the book made it easy.As she said,no bracketing of exposures was needed. This is the only book needed on the subject.

Michael VaughAn , November 01, 2002; 06:33 P.M.

I shoot IR film on a regular basis- Laurie's book was informative enough to get me started. I had to make a few adjustments along the way. But, overall it is a well written book. As far as Koncia vs. Kodak IR film is concerned- Konica has been discontinued. I have shot both films- each has strengths and weaknesses for different subjects and conditions. My Photo.net portfolio has shots using both types of film.


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