Your infrared guide is great, better than anything else I’ve seen by quite a ways. It actually tells me how to get things done and a logical order to do things in.—Oscar Z

I bought the guide mainly for your lens tests and to fill as many of the gaps in my knowledge as possible... overall it's the best guide to IR I've ever seen - so a big thumbs up! I'll be reading for many hours yet —[???]

I just finished reading your infrared guide and am very impressed with your concise and thorough essay on digital infrared photography. You have taken the myth and the mystery out of this subject in an interesting manner that kept me reading it all in one sitting. I will certainly recommend it to all my photographer friends and clients. Thank you for sharing your rich knowledge in digital infrared imaging—John H.

I was very impressed with you IR Guide and photography — Imre D

Crikey Lloyd ............ How informative is this !!!!!! ...... It must of took you years and countless hours!!!!!! ........ I take my hat off to you ........... I love my photography but I wouldn't have that much patience!! Only had a quick flick through so far ...... but mighty impressed! — Steven S

It is very good, I'm enjoying it very much — David W

I have read your guide to IR photography with great pleasure. Not only did it make me more interested in IR photography, it also taught me some extra tools that can be useful for regular photography — Mike G

This is an awesome guide, I can see how much time went into its production... Thanks for producing such an invaluable document! — Kris H

It was a welcomed surprise to see a photographer to tell things the way they are. In a practical way you include almost everything one needs about digital IR in your review...your Guide is a must read and must be mentioned — Paul R

I am enjoying your book very much. So well written and so jammed full of terrific information — Carolee H

By the way, I look at your Infrared Guide, you have a wealth of info! THANK YOU! — John Hartman (jhartman.com)

Seems great so far – just read the other two guides, terrific...the books are great. Very useful, and well worth the money for all of the time you put into creating them — Fergus F

Many thanks for the document, very well presented — Jeff L

Great Guide...and again great guide! — Tony L

First of all I'd like to thank you for putting together this Guide. I found your web site about 4-5 months ago after I had my D70 converted to IR by Lifepixel. I was looking for more info on how to work on the images after I had taken them. I am really glad that you are around and you are willing to put so much time and effort into testing so many different types of equipment — Kris H

After converting successfully my Nikon d40 I was searching on the net for someone who is using the
Canon EOS 5d to see if it worth it to buy one and convert it. So, I found your valuable site and ordered your review — David P

I heard about the Guide on one of the mailings you sent me, as I have purchased a number of previous reviews from you. Without exception they have been excellent, as is your BLOG! Thanks very much and I hope you will continue your work for a long time yet — Dave A

I must congratulate you an a first class job in producing this guide. You have got me on a roll into digital IR.. — Howard F

Last night I started reading your IR article, which seems to be excellent and so informative. The article may be changing my thinking as what converted camera would best suit my needs. I had no idea that it is a relatively cumbersome process to get accurate focusing with a IR converted DSLR. .. — Paul K [bought guide after the class]

I took your course at Keeble and Shucat in Palo Alto on Sept. 28th, 6:30-8:30, I really enjoyed the presentation and learned a lot. Much thanks, Paul — Marc O

The guide is great...my results have improved with my first read! — S. Chan

Thank you for your "Guide to Digital Infrared Photography". I found it well written, and very comprehensive. Your guide has saved me many hours of research. As with all your reviews; well done.

Advance techniques used here

Traditional infrared look

Traditional infrared look

False-color infrared

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The Guide covers the entire process of digital infrared photography, from choosing a camera and lenses to field shooting, to the all-important post-processing of images. See table of contents below.

By reading this guide, you’ll skip a year or two of arduous learning through trial and error— infrared can be tricky to obtain optimal results.

This Guide will save you a huge amount of time in understanding how to achieve top-notch results in infrared. Those with experience in infrared already will still find the Guide a valuable resource for choosing lenses, post-processing techniques, etc.

Numerous examples and considerable guidance are given for each of the topics below. It received feedback from both experienced infrared photographers as well as beginners, and is written to be accessible to all levels of experience.

• Overview—what infrared is, what to expect when starting out.
• Camera selection—digital SLR, point and shoot, filters vs conversion.
• Camera image examples—numerous examples and what to expect from the Fuji F30-IR, Fuji F50-IR, Fuji S6000fd-IR, Canon EOS 5D-IR, Canon G9-IR, Nikon D70-IR, Nikon D200-IR.
• Focusing and backfocus, including a special tip for Canon EOS users;
• Sharpness issues of multiple kinds;
• Filtration, both external and internal;
• Exposure and white balance;
• Hot spots and how to both avoid and work around them in post-processing;
• Lenses, including “hot spot” and backfocus assessments for nearly all of the following SLR lenses:
  Nikon: 12-24DX, 17-35 AF-S, 17-55DX, 18-70DX, 18-200DX, 28-70 AF-S, 70-20 AF-S, 50-300 f/4.5 AI-S, 200-400 f/2 VR, 20 f/3.5 AI-S, 24 f/2 AI-S, 28 f/2 AI-S, 28 f/4 PC, 28 f/2.8 Schneider PC, 35 f/1.4 AI-S, 35 f/2.8 PC, 35 f/2.5E, 45 f/2.8P AI-IS, 50 f/1.4D, 50 f/1.8D, Olympus 50 f/1.2, 58mm f/1.2 NOCT-Nikkor, 60 f/2.8D macro, 85 f/2.8D PC, 85 f/1.4D, 105 f/2DC, 105 f/4 macro, 200 f/2 VR.
  Canon: 16-35 f/2.L, 16-35 f/2.8L II, 24-70 f/2.8L, 24-105 f/4L, Nikon 28-70 AF-S, 70-200 f/2.8L IS, 70-200 f/4L IS, 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 DO, 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS, 15 f/2.8 fisheye, 24 f/1.4L, 35 f/1.4L, Nikon 45 f/2.8P, 50/1.4, 50 f/1.8 II, 50 f/1.2L, 50 f/2.5 macro, Nikon 60 f/2.8D macro, 85 f/1.2L II, 85 f/1.8, Nikon 85 f/2.8D PC, Nikon 85 f/1.4D, 100 f/2.8 macro, 135 f/2L, 300 f/4L IS, 300 f/2.8L IS
• Workflow: swapping and inverting color channels, techniques for grayscale conversion, color expansion, selective color, RAW-file conversion, color space and gamut, 16-bit vs 8-bit.
• Photoshop actions and javascripts for generating variants of an image in both layered and contact sheet form, helping you to visualize the creative possibilities.
• Resources—where to find additional information on camera conversions, filters, books, web sites, etc.

The Guide is approximately 170 megabytes due to the size and number of the example photos (download size of the compressed zip file is slightly smaller). You may print it for reading if you prefer, but it’s best read using your web-browser to allow easy navigation.

What it is and is not

The Guide covers the entire process of digital infrared, from choosing a camera and lenses to field shooting, to post-processing of images. The value of the Guide is in articulating working techniques and considerations gained from years of experience with a variety of cameras so that you can choose a camera, lenses and workflow most appropriate for your own work.

Please note that while specific camera models such as the Canon EOS 5D and Nikon D70 have the most coverage, others like the Nikon D200 have less coverage and/or fewer example images (cameras change constantly, so understanding how infrared works in general is much more important). If you have any questions about what’s included, feel free to contact diglloyd.com before purchasing.

Learn and save

This Guide captures what was learned in over five years of ongoing infrared image-making. It’s a review from the perspective of a photographer wishing to make satisfying and compelling images. You can’t buy a book or books with this level of practical how-to coverage.

You can spend hundreds of dollars on filters alone, get the wrong camera for your needs, etc. The considerable expense (and ongoing hassles) of making the wrong choice can be avoided by reading the Guide prior to making purchase decisions..

Update policy

When you buy the review, you not only get everything currently in it, you get all updates for a full year. When a new ZF/ZE lens arrives,it goes into the review. When a new camera arrives (eg the D3x), more examples are added.

Get it

Purchase via PayPal (preferred) or personal check or money order (contact diglloyd Inc for the latter). You do not need a PayPal account to buy via PayPal, just a credit card.