Shooting My First Roll of Rollei 400 Infrared Film Tomorrow with 720 Filter, Any Pointers?

[Ivo Stunga]

Shooting IR for the last 2 years I've come to conclusion that the blackness of the skies depends on season, atmospheric conditions of a given day, time of the day (Sun overhead to reduce atmospheric scattering or the red in the skies as blue color goes bye bye first) and CPL when the first factors don't align to your liking.
Extra blue skies will be extra dark in IR

 

[Ivo Stunga]

Mornings tend to be bluer, evenings redder.

So, for a chance of dark skies I'd go shooting morning/noon and would experiment underexposing a little bit.


Middle of August, 9AM


End of July, 9:10AM


Beginning of June, 12:22 - one of the darkest I got and lands precisely at noon, Sun overhead.


So it seems that the "Golden hour" for IR is around noon when every other shooter is afraid to go out in the harshness : D

 

[blee1996]

I agree the "golden hour" of infrared film is high noon, when the foliage emits a lot of infrared red while the sky can be deep blue. Thus accentuate the infrared look.

On the other hand, I often like to have interesting clouds in the sky. Ideally the foliage is still in direct sunlight. And I also like the dark clouds shortly before a storm, which is even more dramatic in infrared.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

Or during a nearing storm!
Viršu purva ezeriņš by Ivo Stunga, on Flickr

 

[David R Williams]

Or during a nearing storm!
Viršu purva ezeriņš by Ivo Stunga, on Flickr

Wow. Just wow, that's a great photo.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

Appreciated