Infrared Photography in a Toronto Photo Studio — Exploring the Spectrum Beyond Visible Light
Infrared photography is one of the oldest and most enduringly fascinating departures from conventional photographic representation. By capturing light in the infrared spectrum — wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye but that interact with the physical world in ways that are dramatically different from visible light — infrared photography produces images that feel both immediately recognizable and profoundly strange. Foliage that appears green to human vision reflects infrared light intensely and photographs as brilliant white or pale gold. Blue skies that appear bright to the eye absorb infrared and photograph as nearly black. Skin tones take on an ethereal, luminous quality. Water and glass behave unexpectedly. The world revealed by infrared photography is the same world we inhabit, seen through a perceptual filter that is simultaneously realistic and surreal.
We work with photographers at our studio in Leslieville who are exploring infrared photography as both a fine art practice and a commercial technique, and what we have observed is that infrared work produces results that are genuinely distinctive from any other photographic approach — distinctive in a way that is not simply a matter of post-processing style but reflects the actual physics of how different materials respond to infrared light. Understanding these physics, and designing studio sessions that take advantage of them, is what allows infrared photography to produce its most compelling results.
The Physics of Infrared Photography
Visible light occupies a specific range of the electromagnetic spectrum, roughly from 400 nanometres (violet) to 700 nanometres (red). Infrared light begins where visible red ends — from approximately 700 nanometres extending into longer wavelengths. The near-infrared range most commonly used in infrared photography is roughly 700 to 1000 nanometres. Human eyes cannot detect light in this range; digital camera sensors can, but they are typically filtered to block most infrared light because it would otherwise cause colour shifts in standard photography.
Infrared photography becomes possible either by using a camera that has had its infrared-blocking filter removed by a camera modification specialist, or by using an external infrared-passing filter — placed over the lens — that blocks visible light and allows only infrared to pass through. Modified cameras are significantly more practical for shooting because they require normal exposures; external filters require very long exposures because they allow so little light to pass that sensor sensitivity must be compensated for.
The reason infrared photography produces such distinctive results is that different materials reflect infrared light in ways that are quite different from how they reflect visible light. Chlorophyll — the pigment responsible for the green colour of living vegetation — is a particularly strong reflector of infrared light, which is why green foliage becomes brilliant white or pale in infrared photographs. The same physical effect makes skin tones luminous and smooth-appearing in infrared, because human skin contains a significant amount of infrared-reflective material beneath its surface.
Studio Applications of Infrared Photography
While infrared photography is most commonly associated with outdoor landscape work — the dramatic white foliage and dark skies of classic infrared landscape photography — there are compelling studio applications that are less commonly explored but equally interesting. Studio infrared photography allows for completely controlled investigation of how different subjects and materials respond to infrared light, and the results frequently surprise even experienced photographers.
Portrait photography in the studio using infrared produces results that have a distinctive quality of luminosity and otherworldliness. The skin's infrared reflectivity creates a smoothness and radiance that is different from any post-processing approach applied to conventional portraits. Dark hair becomes lighter and more texture-visible in infrared. Eyes behave unusually — the iris often becomes quite dark in infrared, creating a striking quality of gaze. Clothing responds differently based on the material — some dark fabrics become lighter, some light fabrics show unexpected patterns of infrared reflectance.
Plant and botanical subjects in the studio are transformed dramatically by infrared photography. A simple arrangement of cut flowers and foliage becomes an exercise in infrared physics — the green leaves become pale and luminous, the flower petals may or may not reflect infrared depending on their specific pigmentation, and the overall composition reads completely differently than it would in visible light. For photographers who work with botanical subjects, infrared photography opens an entirely different visual vocabulary for the same subjects.
Lighting for Studio Infrared Photography
Studio lighting for infrared photography presents specific challenges that require understanding of how different light sources behave in the infrared spectrum. Not all light sources produce useful amounts of infrared light, and the quality of infrared illumination from different sources varies significantly.
Incandescent and tungsten light sources produce generous amounts of infrared light, which is one of the reasons early infrared photography used these sources extensively. The infrared output of tungsten sources is actually higher relative to their visible light output than most other artificial sources, making them efficient for infrared work. However, the heat generated by tungsten sources is a practical limitation in a studio environment, particularly for longer sessions or when working with subjects that cannot be exposed to sustained heat.
Studio flash units (strobes) produce less predictable infrared output. The xenon flash tubes used in most studio strobes do produce some infrared light, but the amount varies by manufacturer and model, and the colour temperature of strobe output does not directly translate to infrared output in predictable ways. Testing a specific strobe setup with infrared photography before committing to it as a primary light source for infrared work is important.
LED panels, which have become the dominant continuous light source in many studios, typically produce very little infrared light — they are designed to produce visible light efficiently, and their solid-state design does not generate the infrared radiation that incandescent sources produce as a byproduct. For studio infrared photography that uses continuous lighting, LEDs are often not appropriate, and incandescent or halogen sources may need to be used instead.
Natural light transmitted through a studio window is often an excellent source for studio infrared photography because sunlight contains abundant infrared radiation. A studio with large windows that admit good quality natural light can use that light for infrared work, and the quality of north light — diffuse, even, and rich in the near-infrared wavelengths useful for photography — is well suited to portraiture and still life work in the infrared spectrum.
Shooting Tethered for Infrared Work
Because infrared photography produces images that look quite different on the camera's LCD monitor than standard photography — the colour shifts and tonal relationships are often confusing to evaluate on a small screen, particularly when using external filters — tethered shooting, which displays the images on a larger calibrated monitor in real time, is particularly valuable for studio infrared work.
With a tethered workflow, each frame is immediately visible at a size that allows for meaningful evaluation of how the infrared rendering is affecting different elements of the scene. The photographer can see whether the foliage or fabric is producing the desired infrared effect, whether the skin tones have the luminous quality that characterises good infrared portraiture, and whether the composition and lighting are working in the infrared spectrum as intended before committing to an extensive series of frames in a direction that may not be producing the desired results.
The colour rendering of raw infrared photographs before post-processing is often quite disorienting — typically with strong red or magenta colour casts that bear little resemblance to the black-and-white or coloured infrared aesthetic that most photographers are working toward. Understanding that this initial appearance is not the final image, and that post-processing will transform the raw capture significantly, is important for maintaining perspective during the shooting session.
Post-Processing Infrared Photography
The post-processing of infrared photographs is an essential part of the creative process, not an afterthought. The range of post-processing approaches available for infrared photography is broad, from straightforward conversion to black and white through highly stylized colour treatments that create the "false colour" infrared look familiar from much contemporary infrared photography.
The classic black-and-white infrared aesthetic — deep black skies, brilliant white foliage, luminous skin tones — is achieved through conversion of the raw capture to monochrome with adjustments that emphasise the specific tonal relationships that infrared light creates. The high contrast between infrared-reflective subjects (foliage, skin) and infrared-absorbing subjects (skies, water) creates graphic images with dramatic impact that is quite different from conventional black-and-white photography of the same subjects.
False colour infrared processing retains some of the colour information captured by the sensor and manipulates it to create a colour aesthetic that references traditional colour infrared film, which rendered foliage as pink or gold and skies as vivid blue or cyan. The specific palette depends on the processing choices made in software, and there is significant creative range within the false colour infrared aesthetic from subtle to extreme.
Infrared Photography as a Distinctive Creative Voice
For photographers who are looking for a distinctive visual identity that cannot be easily replicated by other photographers or by post-processing approaches applied to conventional photography, infrared offers exactly that distinction. Because the infrared aesthetic is a function of the physics of how subjects actually respond to infrared light — not a simulated effect that can be achieved by applying a filter or preset to a standard photograph — infrared images have a quality of authenticity and distinctiveness that is difficult to fake.
Building an infrared photography practice requires investment in the necessary equipment — either a converted camera body dedicated to infrared work or a set of external infrared filters — and significant time developing the technical skills and creative instincts required to produce consistently excellent infrared images. But the resulting distinctiveness — images that are immediately recognisable as infrared, that have a visual character that no other approach can produce — provides a foundation for a creative identity that stands out clearly in a photographic landscape where visual differentiation is increasingly difficult to achieve.
Our studio supports infrared photography practice by providing the controlled environment, the appropriate light sources, and the tethering infrastructure that makes studio infrared work productive and enjoyable. We encourage photographers who are curious about infrared to explore what the technique might offer their specific creative practice, because the discoveries that infrared photography enables are among the most genuinely surprising available in contemporary photographic practice.
The Historical Tradition and Future of Infrared Photography
Infrared photography has a rich historical tradition. The technique was developed in the early twentieth century and reached widespread recognition through the work of photographers who used Kodak High Speed Infrared film to create dramatic landscape and portrait images. The distinctive aesthetic of this film — its grain structure, its specific tonal rendering, its particular quality of tonal contrast — became deeply associated with infrared photography as a medium and continues to influence the digital infrared aesthetic today.
The transition to digital infrared photography has brought significant technical improvements — no more loading film in complete darkness, no more waiting for processing before knowing whether the technique worked — while also introducing new post-processing possibilities that film could not offer. Digital infrared capture can be processed toward a very wide range of final aesthetics, from precise simulation of historical film infrared looks to entirely new colour and tonal treatments that have no film precedent.
The future of infrared photography in a studio context will likely be shaped by developments in sensor technology, in LED infrared light sources designed specifically for photography, and in software tools that make infrared post-processing more accessible and more controlled. Each of these developments will expand what is technically possible in studio infrared work while leaving the fundamental creative challenge unchanged: finding subjects, light sources, and compositions that reveal what infrared light makes visible in its most compelling and most meaningful form.
Digital Versus Film Infrared Photography
The history of infrared photography is inseparable from the history of infrared film — Kodak High Speed Infrared and Kodak Ektachrome Infrared IE were the dominant infrared films for most of the twentieth century, and the distinctive look they produced remains a reference point for infrared photography today. The grain structure of high-speed infrared film, combined with the specific tonal rendering it produced and the halation effect — a glow around bright areas caused by light scattering within the film emulsion — created an aesthetic that became deeply associated with infrared photography as a medium.
Digital infrared photography has both advantages and limitations relative to film infrared. The advantages are significant: no film loading in darkness, no processing uncertainty, immediate preview of results, RAW capture that allows significant post-processing flexibility, and the elimination of film costs. The limitations are more subtle but real: digital infrared images lack the grain structure that many photographers loved about film infrared, and the halation effect — which many photographers considered an attractive characteristic of film infrared — is generally not present in digital infrared capture.
Software simulation of film infrared characteristics has improved considerably in recent years, and plugins and presets that simulate the specific look of Kodak High Speed Infrared or Ektachrome Infrared IE are widely used by digital infrared photographers who want to reference the historical film aesthetic. Whether these simulations are fully satisfying to photographers who worked extensively with film infrared is a matter of ongoing creative debate, but they provide digital photographers with access to the aesthetic vocabulary of film infrared without requiring access to the increasingly rare and expensive film itself.
The Challenge of Focussing in Infrared Photography
One technical challenge of infrared photography that is less commonly discussed is the focussing shift that infrared light introduces in most lenses. Most photographic lenses are optimised for visible light, and the point of focus for infrared light is slightly different from the point of focus for visible light due to infrared's different wavelength. This means that a lens that appears to be in focus when previewed through a visible-light viewfinder may be slightly out of focus in the actual infrared capture.
For cameras with modified sensors that have had their infrared-blocking filter removed, the camera's live view and autofocus can be used directly for infrared photography without focussing adjustment, because the sensor is seeing the same infrared light that is being captured. For cameras using external infrared filters, the focussing shift requires using live view at high magnification to confirm focus directly in the infrared channel, since the viewfinder may not provide accurate focus information.
The focussing shift varies by lens and focal length, and some older lenses that were made when infrared film was in common use have infrared focus marks engraved on their focus rings — a small red dot or "R" mark that indicates where to set focus for infrared film photography. These legacy infrared focus marks are useful guides even for digital infrared photographers using these lenses, though digital infrared capture may have slightly different shift characteristics from film.
Building an Infrared Portfolio in the Studio
Developing a compelling infrared photography portfolio through studio sessions requires thinking about what types of subjects and compositions translate most effectively to the infrared medium. Not every photographic subject is enhanced by infrared treatment — subjects with no infrared-reflective elements, or subjects whose visual interest depends entirely on their colour rather than their form, may be less interesting in infrared than in conventional photography.
Portraiture is one of the strongest studio applications of infrared photography, because the human skin's infrared reflectivity creates portraits with a luminous, ethereal quality that is genuinely different from any conventional portrait aesthetic. Working with models or subjects in the studio to create portraits specifically designed for infrared rendering — considering how their clothing, hair, and features will translate to the infrared medium — produces a distinctive body of work that stands apart from conventional portrait photography.
Still life compositions that combine strongly infrared-reflective elements (foliage, white fabrics, certain flowers) with infrared-absorbing elements (dark backgrounds, certain coloured fabrics) create compositions with dramatic infrared tonal contrast. Designing these compositions specifically for infrared rather than adapting existing conventional still life arrangements gives the infrared medium its own visual logic rather than treating it as simply a different rendering of the same subjects.
The long-term value of building a significant infrared portfolio in the studio is that the resulting body of work has a visual coherence and distinctiveness that is genuinely hard to achieve in more conventional photographic genres. A hundred well-executed infrared studio portraits, or a cohesive series of infrared still life compositions, represents a creative investment that produces work that few other photographers have the technical knowledge or the commitment to produce.
Infrared Photography and the Question of Authenticity
One of the ongoing creative and ethical discussions in infrared photography concerns the question of authenticity — whether infrared images, which show the world as it is not normally seen by human eyes, are "real" photographs in the sense that straightforward documentary photographs are. This question is not specific to infrared photography; it also arises in colour photography (which does not render colour the way human vision renders it), in black-and-white photography (which eliminates the colour information that human vision uses), and in various other photographic approaches that depart from the representation of human visual experience.
The position we find most useful is that infrared photography is not a falsification of the world but a representation of an aspect of the world that is genuinely present but invisible to human eyes. Infrared radiation is real; its interaction with physical objects is real; the results that infrared photography reveals are not fabrications but records of actual physical events and properties. What the technique does is shift the range of the electromagnetic spectrum that is represented, which reveals information about the world that ordinary photography does not record.
This perspective positions infrared photography as an expansion of photography's representational range rather than a departure from it. Just as radio telescopes reveal aspects of the universe that optical telescopes cannot see, and X-ray imaging reveals aspects of the body that visible light cannot penetrate to show, infrared photography reveals aspects of the visible world that human eyes cannot directly perceive. The resulting images are not less authentic than conventional photographs; they are authentic representations of a different aspect of the same reality.
Seasonal and Environmental Considerations for Infrared Studio Work
Unlike outdoor infrared photography, which is significantly affected by seasonal variation — summer foliage produces the strongest infrared reflection, while winter landscapes have less infrared-reflective material — studio infrared photography is largely independent of season and weather. The controlled studio environment can be set up identically regardless of external conditions, and the subjects brought into the studio can be selected specifically for their infrared photographic properties regardless of what the outdoor environment offers.
This seasonal independence makes studio infrared photography a year-round practice, whereas outdoor infrared landscape work has a natural rhythm dictated by the growing season and the availability of the foliage and sky conditions that produce the most dramatic infrared results. For photographers who want to develop and maintain infrared skills throughout the year, studio practice provides the continuity that outdoor-only infrared work cannot.
The ability to bring controlled quantities of infrared-reflective plant material into the studio — cut branches, potted plants, flower arrangements — allows studio photographers to create the compositional elements that make infrared photography most visually distinctive without being dependent on outdoor access. A beautifully arranged collection of leafy branches in a studio vase can be as effective an infrared subject as a landscape full of trees, and has the additional advantage of being arrangeable according to the photographer's compositional intentions rather than having to accept whatever the outdoor environment provides.
Infrared Photography as Fine Art Practice
The history of infrared photography includes a significant tradition of fine art practice, from the romantic landscapes of early infrared photographers to more contemporary fine art uses of the medium. The quality of ethereal otherworldliness that infrared produces — making the familiar look strange, the earthly look celestial, the everyday look mysterious — has consistently attracted fine art photographers who are drawn to photography's capacity to defamiliarize the ordinary.
In a studio context, fine art infrared photography can explore a very different set of subjects and approaches from landscape infrared work. Studio portraiture in infrared can create images of human presence that are both intimate and strange — the luminous skin, the darkened eyes, the altered hair tones create a portrait mode that references traditional portraiture while departing radically from its conventional aesthetic. Object and still life work in infrared can find the uncanny in familiar domestic objects, revealing their infrared properties in ways that make them look simultaneously completely familiar and completely different.
Building a fine art infrared practice through studio work requires the same commitment to developing a personal creative vision that all fine art photography requires, plus the specific technical investment that infrared demands. The rewards are a body of work with a strong and immediately recognisable visual identity, the technical depth that comes from mastering a genuinely demanding technique, and the creative satisfaction of working within a medium that continues to reveal surprising and beautiful properties the more deeply it is explored.
Connecting Infrared Photography to Broader Creative Practice
Infrared photography does not exist in isolation from the broader creative practice of a photographer — it connects to, informs, and is informed by the other aspects of their photographic work. A portrait photographer who begins exploring infrared work often finds that the experience of seeing subjects through the infrared medium — the skin's luminosity, the altered quality of hair and eyes, the strange and ethereal quality of the infrared portrait — changes how they think about light and form in their conventional portrait work as well. The infrared exercise trains the eye to look for qualities in subjects that the infrared medium will reveal, and that training of the eye has value in all photographic contexts.
Similarly, photographers who primarily work in colour and who develop an infrared practice find that the tonal thinking required by infrared photography — seeing in terms of reflected infrared rather than reflected visible light — sharpens their understanding of how tonal relationships work in their colour photography. Infrared photography requires thinking explicitly about how subjects will render tonally, because the tonal relationships in infrared are so different from those in visible light that they cannot be predicted intuitively from looking at the subject. Developing this explicit tonal thinking carries back into colour photography as a more conscious and deliberate approach to tonal composition.
Building infrared photography into a broader creative practice as a regular element rather than an occasional experiment requires setting up systems that make the transition between conventional and infrared photography easy. If infrared requires a fundamentally different camera setup — a modified body, or a set of filters and longer exposures — then the friction of transitioning to infrared during a shooting session can lead to infrared being reserved for dedicated sessions rather than integrated into regular work. Reducing that friction, by keeping an infrared-dedicated setup always ready in the studio, encourages more regular exploration and more organic integration of infrared into the creative practice as a whole.
Technical Settings for Infrared Studio Portraiture
For photographers who are setting up for their first studio infrared portraiture session, several specific technical settings have proven effective in our experience with photographers working in the space. Starting with an ISO in the 400-800 range balances sensor sensitivity for adequate exposure with keeping noise at a manageable level; infrared sensors can produce more visible noise than conventional photography because the infrared signal is relatively weak. A moderate aperture in the f/5.6 to f/8 range balances depth of field — adequate for most portrait work — with the need for meaningful depth in the image. White balance should be set to a custom value that suits the specific infrared filter and light source being used, or left at a RAW setting that can be adjusted in post-processing.
For lighting, starting with a simple three-light setup — a key light, a fill light, and a hair/rim light — allows evaluation of each light's infrared output relative to the others before adding complexity. The output balance between lights may need to be different from conventional portrait lighting because different light sources produce different relative amounts of infrared output at the same nominal power setting. Testing each light individually before combining them in a setup confirms their relative infrared outputs and allows the balance to be set deliberately.
The focal length choice for infrared portraiture follows the same general principles as conventional portraiture — longer focal lengths (85mm to 135mm equivalent) produce more flattering perspective compression and allow working at a comfortable distance from the subject — with the added consideration of the focussing shift that infrared introduces. Testing the specific focal length and lens being used to confirm the focussing adjustment needed for infrared is worthwhile before beginning the portrait session itself.
Scheduling Infrared Sessions for Creative Rhythm
Establishing a regular rhythm for infrared photography sessions — whether monthly, quarterly, or tied to specific creative projects — helps build technical fluency with the medium over time. Technical skills in infrared photography, like all photography skills, are maintained and developed through practice, and a photographer who shoots infrared only rarely finds that the specific technical adjustments required — focussing calibration, exposure management, post-processing workflow — are never fully internalized as automatic habits.
Regular studio infrared sessions with a specific creative intention — a project focus, a set of subjects to explore, a visual problem to work through — produce more rapid skill development and more coherent creative outcomes than sporadic sessions without specific goals. The creative goals provide direction to the technical exploration, and the technical exploration produces visual discoveries that feed back into the creative project.
Developing a personal infrared studio project — a body of work that explores a specific subject, theme, or visual idea through the infrared medium over an extended period — is one of the most effective ways to develop both technical facility and creative depth in infrared photography. The project's demands drive the technical development; the technical development expands the creative possibilities of the project. Over the course of a year or more of sustained studio infrared work on a focused project, the results are typically both technically accomplished and creatively coherent in ways that more scattered exploration does not produce.
The Value of Fine Art Infrared Work for Commercial Positioning
There is a specific commercial value to developing a serious fine art infrared practice alongside a commercial photography career: fine art infrared work is often the most compelling possible demonstration of technical distinction and creative vision, and these demonstrations of distinction and vision attract commercial clients who are looking for photographers with a clearly developed aesthetic identity rather than technically competent but undifferentiated commercial photography service.
Commercial clients — particularly the most sophisticated and discerning clients in luxury, fashion, editorial, and brand photography — are often as influenced by a photographer's fine art work as by their commercial work portfolio. The fine art work demonstrates what the photographer is genuinely interested in and genuinely excellent at; it shows their creative vision unfiltered by commercial requirements. Infrared fine art work that is original, technically accomplished, and creatively distinctive can be a powerful differentiator in a commercial photography market where many photographers have excellent conventional photography portfolios that look quite similar to each other.
Infrared Photography as a Gateway to Understanding Light
For many photographers, beginning to work with infrared photography creates a shift in how they understand and think about light more broadly. Because infrared reveals aspects of light and its interaction with matter that are invisible in ordinary visual experience, working with it forces an explicit engagement with the physics of light — with wavelengths, absorption, reflection, and transmission — that conventional photography often allows to remain implicit and intuitive.
This more explicit understanding of light, developed through infrared practice, tends to carry back into conventional photography as a richer conceptual framework for thinking about light quality, light direction, and light-subject interaction. A photographer who has spent significant time working with infrared light, and who has developed an understanding of why different subjects behave differently in the infrared spectrum, has a more complete conceptual model of light's behaviour than one who has worked only with visible light. This conceptual completeness expresses itself in more intentional and more sophisticated light management in all photographic contexts.
Our studio in Leslieville provides an excellent environment for infrared photography exploration — controlled, adaptable, with good natural light access and appropriate electrical infrastructure for the continuous light sources that work well for infrared work. We encourage photographers at all stages of experience with infrared to bring their practice into the studio and to treat the controlled environment as a laboratory for understanding what the infrared medium can do, what it reveals that visible light does not, and how to build compelling creative work on the foundation of infrared photography's unique visual properties.
The studio also provides something less tangible but equally important: a creative community of photographers who are exploring challenging and distinctive photographic approaches. Infrared photography, because of its specific technical demands and its visually distinctive results, attracts photographers who share a certain quality of engagement with the medium — a willingness to invest in understanding how it works, patience with the iteration required to get good results, and genuine creative curiosity about what becomes visible through the infrared lens. The conversations that happen when these photographers are working in the same space — sharing technical discoveries, comparing creative approaches, offering perspective on each other's work — are part of what makes a purpose-built photography studio valuable beyond its equipment and infrastructure. We are proud to host that community, and we look forward to continuing to support the infrared photography practice of Toronto photographers at all stages of their creative development.
