Film: Ilford SFX

Ilford SFX is the only Ilford film, I’ve not used before. I purchased a roll to give it a try. Why? I’ve never done any Infrared photography before, and while this isn’t a true infrared film, it does have sensitivity extended into that area.

The graph from Ilford (Harman) above, shows where conventional film stops “seeing” and how much further SFX can see. For true infrared photography one uses a “black filter” more accurately a filter that cuts out visible light, but starts letting light through from about the 700mn wavelength. The most popular filter is a Hoya and is known as the R72, I assume as it lets light with a wavelength of 720mn and above through.

Trouble is these filters are moderately expensive, and it’s unlikely something that I’ll much, if ever, again. I’ve heard people get “interesting” results by just using a deep red filter so I thought I’d go that route and see what I got. I set off the Kingston Lacy, with my Nikon FE2, and made some pairs of exposures.

Certainly I can see a difference. WITH the filter the blue sky is darker and the light clouds stand out more, but then I would have expected that from a red filter. Interestingly though I would have expected that to be much more pronounced. I think the infrared has REDUCED the normal effect. While certainly some foliage, notably grass, is lighter and more “infrared looking”.

The images above might be the best example I made that show a difference. It would appear that the more important factor is to have more of a knowledge about infrared light, as in what reflects more of it and therefore makes a more striking photo.

Another interesting photography experiment, and as usual I’ve added more knowledge to my arsenal, never a bad thing. As usual I’ve also realised there is much more that I don’t know than I do. Perhaps I will get a R72 filter and try another roll. That will mean much longer exposures and a tripod of course, all of the above were hand held.