Kodak High-Speed Infrared Film Landscapes

In the 1990s & 2000s, black and white was my preferred film, which I photographed regularly on. I had a book that i referenced a lot in those early days on landscapes, and in it there were a couple of images taken on infrared high speed film. I had bought a room of this film from Kodak - Kodak HIE Infrared Film , which was at the time fairly easy to get hold of.

Ilford SFX & Kodak High Speed Infrared Film

Another time I used Ilford SFX, which was more forgiving than the Kodak film. The Kodak wasn’t very easy to use, you have to load it in complete darkness and not leave your camera any place warm otherwise you’d fog the negatives. So it was definitely a case of loading on the day that you’d want to shoot with it, then get it out of the camera and into the dark room. At the time, I was using a shared darkroom so I knew that I would be developing this myself, rather than sending it away. Up until then, I kept the film in the fridge.

Once it was in the camera I headed out to a place not far from Cardiff, Nash Point, as the weather was looking stormy and I thought I might get lucky with some angry looking clouds with the lighthouse in the background. I was in for a bit of a treat as the sky was perfect for infrared pictures. The summer sky was deep blue with the whitest clouds, and behind a was storm coming in.

A black and white infrared image of the lighthouse at Nash Point, South Wales — The lighthouse at Nash Point, South Wales. Kodak HIE brings out the blackest skies, especially using a red filter.

Focusing IR film is different to regular film, and in those days my camera had a small orange mark on the lens barrel, which wass the point that you’d focus at. I.e., find the right focus for the picture, then twist it back slightly to the marker. This is all because IR travels on different wavelengths that are shorter/longer than regular light/film. Also, there is no ISO on this film, so exposures are guess work. From memory, the trick was to set the camera up at f16 to ensure that everything was in focus, set the shutter speed between 1/60 and 1/125 second and hope for the best..!

A black and white infrared image of a storm rolling in off the Bristol Channel at Nash Point, South Wales — Kodak HIE Infra Red film was great to work with on this particularly stormy day, with great clouds that came out white against the dark sky

A black and white infrared image of a telegraph poles and cattle in a field with storm clouds in the distance at Nash Point, South Wales — Clouds rolling in off the sea, threatening to rain but they didn't, enabled me to capture these images on a roll of Kodak HIE infrared film

I took more or less the whole reel of film here, and these were some of the best pictures I got out of the camera that day.

Kodak High-Speed Infrared Film Landscapes

Ilford SFX & Kodak High Speed Infrared Film

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