As both a techie and a photographer I love pushing the envelope of what is possible in digital photography. One of the most interesting intersections of these the interests has been the observation that images don’t need to be limited to visible light. Several years ago I had a Nikon D70 converted to be sensitive to infrared — allowing me to capture some amazing images of Cambodian temples and moody landscapes.

Wanting to go further, recently I tackled converting my Nikon D7000 into a full spectrum camera, which gave me the option of capturing either near infrared or visible light (or both). Switching between them is as simple as screwing in a different filter.

I wouldn’t recommend taking apart your primary camera, if the holiday season brought you a new model it might be time to experiment with your old one (like I did). While this article it not a full How To, it will walk you through IR shooting, the conversion, and the results.

Why convert a camera?

The so-called “near infrared” spectrum — from about 700 nanometers (the longest wavelength red we can see with our eyes) to around 1000 nm (the longest wavelength to which our camera sensors are typically sensitive) — is chock full of interesting visuals. Dreary gray skies turn into cinema-worthy masterpieces, drab foliage pops and separates itself from surrounding rocks and buildings, and everyday objects can take on an otherworldly quality.

Your digital camera is designed to block all that valuable infrared light, since when left uncontrolled it pollutes the visible light reaching your RGB sensor. With film, switching to infrared was simply a matter of using infrared-sensitive film, but with digital it typically means removing the infrared cut filter from your sensor — a tricky operation. You can have one of a number of companies do this for you, as I did for a PC Magazine project when LifePixel converted my Nikon D70, or you can do it yourself, like I did for this project using a replacement filter from Kolari Vision.

Infrared or full spectrum?

Once you want to go beyond the range of visible light you have a couple basic options. You can convert your camera to only receive infrared light by replacing the IR blocking filter with one which instead blocks visible light. This makes your camera an IR-ready tool — you can easily use it like you would normally, except it will capture infrared images.

Alternatively, you can retain more flexibility by doing a conversion to full spectrum (UV+visible+IR) or two spectrum (Visible+IR). Those conversions involve removing the infrared filter and replacing it with a similarly-sized sheet of clear glass or a UV blocking filter. This allows you to pick and choose which parts of the spectrum your camera captures depending on which screw-in filter you use in front of your lens. You can even tweak which portion of the IR spectrum you photograph by selecting specifically-rated blocking filters (e.g. 650nm, 720nm, or 760nm.)

Next page: To DIY or not to DIY…