A walnut tree in Austin, Texas near the Texas State Capitol Building on August 5, 2010. Joe del Tufo made the image on a road trip in marks is as one of his favorite infrared photos.(Photo: Courtesy of Joe del Tufo)
Don't adjust your screen, these photos look just as they're intended. Joe del Tufo's infrared photography displays a whole world invisible to the human eye.
By modifying a digital camera with a filter that blocks out the visible light spectrum, del Tufo is able to capture just near-infrared and infrared wavelengths of light.
Infrared light exists just below the visible light range on the light spectrum.
"When I was first getting into it I would often be surprised by what I got versus what I was expecting," del Tufo said. "There was a forest fire in California and in some cases the fire went up a tree like a candy cane. When you looked at it in person, it just looked like a burned up tree. When you looked at it in infrared you could see the living parts of the tree very distinctly."
The Jet Star roller coaster in Seaside Heights, N.J. was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 when the storm plunged the ride into the ocean. Before the coaster was demolished, del Tufo travelled to the Jersey Shore to make an image of the semi-submerged ride but was chased off by police officers keeping the area clear. Af ter befriending a construction worker del Tufo was able to make an infrared image of the attraction. (Photo: Courtesy of Joe del Tufo)
Infrared photography dates back to the early 1900's when photos were primarily black and white. As digital cameras have progressed over the last ten years, the technique has taken on a new life in color.
"It's well over 100 years old now but it's still a valid art form," del Tufo said.
Infrared images have a stark magenta hue in digital color cameras when they're first taken, but by taking the image into a program like Photoshop and converting the red channels in the image to blue, and likewise the blue to red, the image takes on a more familiar look with deep blue skies.
The technique also requires a photographer to break the traditional rules of photography. Typically photographers avoid harsh light in midday for the "golden hour" of early morning or dusk.
An engine from the Wilmington & Western Railroad moves down the tracks in this photograph from 2011. (Photo: Courtesy of Joe del Tufo)
"You want to be perpendicular to the light, so shooting at high noon is ideal," del Tufo said.
For the past 10 years del Tufo has a variety of modified cameras to make his infrared photos. His latest is a Nikon D7100 modified by Kolari. At 24 megapixels, the body has a limited focal length range at which del Tufo can shoot, giving him only about 60mm of latitude to keep an image in focus.
On Saturday del Tufo will work with 4Youth Productions, a group that works with under privileged students and teaches them different photographic techniques.
On a month-long road trip devoted to infrared photography del Tufo and his family crossed the country looking for thoroughly documented landmarks they could show in a different light. On August 10, 2010 del Tufo finally made an image he was happy with of the St. Louis arch. "It took a long time to find the right frame ," del Tufo said. "Once I found it the previous hundred shots meant nothing." (Photo: Courtesy of Joe del Tufo)
"It gets them out of the city looking at different things and seeing it with a different eye," del Tufo said. "Seeing what some birds and snakes can see and use to get their food. We can use it to realize there is more than what our eye is able to see."
But del Tufo doesn't do all the teaching when he's out with the young students.
"What I've noticed about them is this is a very new experience, and they see things I would never think of seeing," del Tufo said. "I learn from them sometimes."
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Source: First State Focus: Photographing a hidden world
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