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Table of Contents   Page 1: Focusing Overview Page 2: The Importance of Critical Focus Page 3: Autofocus Page 4: Autofocus Tip for Canon EOS Page 5: Manual Focus Page 6: Backfocus and Aperture Page 7: Filters Page 8: Filtering a 715nm Nikon D800-IR to 830nm Page 9: Exposure Page 10: White Balance Page 11: White balance with Fuji F30 Page 12: White balance with Canon 5D Page 13: White balance with Nikon D70

Shooting Considerations

Daylight white balance, clipped red channel

White Balance

To obtain accurate exposures and a meaningful histogram on the camera, you must set a custom white balance in the camera, even if shooting RAW.

Even point & shoot cameras such as the Fujifilm F30 offer a custom white balance. Those that don’t are problematic for infrared and should be avoided.

The procedure is simple:

1. Find a subject such as a large deciduous tree, or a green lawn that is highly reflective of infrared.
2. Shoot that subject, telling the camera to auto white balance off that frame (the exact procedure varies with each camera model).

You can also use a gray card or white paper, but these produce no better results and possibly worse ones, because the infrared reflectivity of such artificial surfaces can be variable. Images shot with the resulting white balance won’t be a neutral gray; they typically will be slightly brown or blue, depending on the camera.

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