Beyond the lower edge of visible light lies the infrared spectrum (IR). Its longer waves appear just below our red color, and while it seems non-existent to us, IR is perfectly usable for technological purposes such as night vision and remote controls. Photography, it turns out, can also toy with the infrared spectrum. Out of the box, our digital cameras are actually designed by manufacturers to render reality as we see it, so they aggressively block infrared and ultraviolet light. In most cases, a “hot filter” is placed in front of the sensor for that purpose. But intentionally removing that filter allows a camera sensor to record the full light spectrum; this is called a full spectrum conversion in photogeek terms. The photos in here are shot with a converted Canon R5. A converted camera then sees too many clashing realities if left as-is and must use situation-specific filters to render one or the other: a visible light filter, or “IR/UV cut”, restores a camera’s original capabilities; infrared filters, on the other hand, allow only the IR spectrum through. There are multiple IR filter types, each with slightly different wavelength filtering. So make no mistake about it, when using an infrared-converted camera and filters to render the images in this post, I am not exactly showing you an infrared universe, since our eyes cannot perceive it. What I am doing instead is recording it in a raw form but based on a white balance2 I determine to be appropriate (already skewing its reality towards what I appreciate for mine) and then developing the results to taste. It is in no way what an infrared-adjusted being would see, but rather my arbitrary shifting of an invisible world towards mine. With that out of the way, the possibilities are endless and infrared photography opens the gate to a new universe, one never seen before and yet as real as anything else we can imagine. It is an art form, of course, and as such subjective and opinionated. And that’s why I like it. More details here: https://www.vincentmounier.com/blog2/in-the-realm-of-infrared/