Infrared RAW Nikon Photos (Steven)

[Steven T]

Hello, I’m a noob, so please forgive any protocol blunder. I’m hoping James Ritson or somebody can advise on these questions.

I am having a Nikon d90 converted to infrared, but that camera will not set a neutral white balance once converted, apparently. I am wondering if Affinity Photo’s raw converter will be able to handle that broad of a WB shift? From watching James’ videos, it seems like it will, but with added noise. 
 

If this is true, should I choose a higher ir filter, like 720nm? I was planning on 590nm, but if color is going to be a struggle, perhaps I should reset my expectations and opt for less color? I no longer have access to Photoshop and Lightroom, so would like to do it all in Photo if possible.

[AffinityMakesMeSad]

Steven, if you tag James in this thread he certainly read and answer your question...

@James Ritson

[James Ritson]

Hi @Steven T, just so I understand—using the manual white balance feature on your Nikon won't work correctly, even if you point it at some foliage (or whatever you want to be your artificial "white point")?

Bear in mind that most cameras will actually report an error—my Sony A6000 does this and I previously used an Olympus Pen that did something similar—but will apply the white balance shift nonetheless. Perhaps just double check if that's the case? If your image looks fairly grey and neutral but the sky has an orange/red tint you're in the right ballpark.

What infrared pass is your Nikon, or is it full spectrum? Either way, you can shoot at 590nm and get plenty of false colour in the red spectrum—just use the White Balance picker in Develop and pick an area you want to set the white point from—regardless of how extreme the shift, it will be applied. If you don't manually white balance (and so your entire image will be mostly red), the auto exposure on your camera will avoid clipping the red channel, but this will underexpose the blue and green channels and so your overall image may be noisier when white balanced. Not the end of the world, just not ideal!

Filter strength depends entirely on your artistic choice, really—if you want false colour for that "Goldie" look, 590nm is great. 720nm is a nice balance but colours aren't as rich, then 800nm upwards is more tailored towards black and white conversion.

Regardless, you shouldn't have any issues within Photo, it can white balance any type of infrared image.

Hope that helps!