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Thom Hogan’s Complete Guide to the Nikon D300
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frustrating, at a minimum. If you really want to use a D300 for
such work, you’ll need to take the filter over the sensor off
(see my comments about this at the end of the next section).
Infrared
At the other end of the light spectrum, the D300 does a
marginally better job at the near infrared spectrum.
Most photographers associate infrared images with the grainy,
moody black and white photos generated by Kodak’s old
infrared film. You can duplicate those with your D300, too.
Typically, you’d place a Wratten 89B filter on your camera
(and later use Photoshop to make the conversion to
grayscale).
The D300’s meter is somewhat inaccurate for near infrared
photography (white balance should be set normally), so you
may want to bracket until you find the right exposure for the
filter you use. Since you’re filtering out a fair amount of light
and have a camera that isn’t terrifically receptive to near
infrared, you’ll certainly end up with tripod-inducing shutter
speeds. The Hoya filter I use removes virtually all the visible
spectrum, and I find that I have to add significant exposure to
what the meter recommends, and end up with exposures
measured in seconds no matter what aperture and ISO I use.
If you want to duplicate the grain aspect of Kodak’s infrared
film, set one of the two highest ISO values on your camera
with noise reduction set as low as you can make it—the
D300’s noise pattern is relatively chroma free, so you’ll get a
grainy-type of rendering that’s very appropriate.
The exact wavelength at which light is filtered varies
considerably in filters labeled as “Infrared.” The visible
spectrum ends at about 780 nanometers (and the near-
infrared is usually said to start at that point), but “infrared”
filters are available to start filtering anywhere from 610 to
1000 nanometers. To add to the confusion, different filter
