The Daily Photoist: Mirrored pond comparison two

Every weekday, we pick an image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve!

For those unfamiliar with infrared (IR) photography, both of these shots of the same scene feature the same reality—one we can see with our eyes, and one that is invisible to humans.

Since materials reflect the infrared spectrum differently, images captured of near-infrared wavelengths look unusual to us, with normally bright skies and water rendered almost black, and the darker greens of foliage appearing as if it glows. The comparison is demonstrated well in this serene landscape by Flickr pool contributor Lone Primate.

A technique formerly requiring special IR-sensitive film, some digital cameras can be modified to capture these near-infrared wavelengths by fitting them with very specific deep red filters, which screen-out most visible light and distort our familiarity with the scenes around us. Not only does the green of nature appear white, but a human face is cadaverously chalky (including the lips) and the irises of the eyes look like dark orbs. Even green paint or fabric can have different reflective properties in IR than what we see, so someone wearing a green shirt lying on green grass might look as if they were wearing a black shirt and lying on white grass.

What we like about this particular shot is how a tranquil scene looks even more peaceful in infrared. The pond is like highly-polished onyx and the trees seem blanketed in snow. With the Flickr community's obsession with (and often misunderstanding of) HDR imagery over the last year, it's nice to see a photographer experimenting with a fascinating old technique again. It also gives us an appreciation of how there's a whole other beautiful world out there beyond our visual acuity.