ABSTRACT. Photography and digital painting are offspring of man's urge to express himself and his mastery of technology. InfraRed (IR) technology has become ubiquitous as it is cheaply manufactured and embedded in most devices. IR filters block all but long wavelengths such as those emitted by an IR device (e.g. generic TV remote control units). In this paper, I propose a novel approach to painting using IR light, or IR-graphy. I contrast it to existing light painting techniques that are only possible in a dark environment. Furthermore, I document the IR-graphy apparatus and illustrate experimental results in still and animated images. The preliminary results are encouraging and promising of real-time IR-graphy, which I propose as an affordable and convenient mean of self-expression for the near future.

The images below were painted using a generic remote TV controller and an R72 filter. I used a Pentax lens of 50mm focal length, with f/1.4 aperture, a shutter speed of 8 seconds and an ISO sensitivity of 800. However, the parameters can be altered and explored ad placitum.

The video above illustrates the painting with IR in still and animated images. The 3D video can be viewed using the cross-eye technique, by crossing your eyes to overlap both frames into a central 3rd.