Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1165675 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author

Customer Reviews

A Good Place to Start
Mr. Begleiter's The Art of Color Infrared Photography seems to be the only book on the subject of color infrared photography that is currently on the market, so if you are looking for guidance on the subject, this is it. The good news is that this book does do a good job of providing enough information to get you off to a good start. You will be confident that you know what you are doing the first time you load a roll of Kodak CIR film into your camera. The book covers all of the topics essential to infrared photography, such as: the physics of infrared light, how the film works, film handling, processing, pushing/pulling, using filters, focusing and various light sources. I give the book only 4 stars because it is not what I would call comprehensive. I wish some of the above topics had been covered in more detail and with more examples. There is only one example of using a yellow filter vs an orange filter, and no examples of doing this under different types of light. Filters are rather essential to IR photography, and I would have liked to see them treated in more depth. There is mention of the alternative AR-5 process for developing the film, but there is only one example of that, too. It peaked my interest, but I couldn't find out more. There is no information on cross-processing color IR film as a negative, which I know some people do. Mr. Begleiter probably doesn't cross-process his film, but some information on the subject would be nice. A little color IR goes a long way, but this book does showcase some nice examples of subjects for which color IR is actually appropriate and attractive, which is helpful and encouraging. All in all, this book not perfect, but it is a worthy addition to the library of any photographer.

Begleiter is a Genius!
If you are interested in adding some zest to your color photography, this book will lead the way. The images in this book are goregeous and the descriptions on how to create images of your own are excellent! I highly recommend purchasing this book!

Mixed feelings on this book
I just bought this book recently, and while I think it might be a useful technical reference, it gives little new insight into the possibilities of CIR film. Charts and graphs are all well and good, but I don't find them terribly helpful. Mr. Begleiter also gives very little information on color filters other than Wratten 12Y and seems to use only that filter except for the one image taken with an orange filter. I would've liked to see more exploration into the color results from different filters other than yellow. Don't get me wrong, there is useful information in this book, primarily the information on filters to correct for tungsten or fluorescent light and what happens to the film when it is outdated. This book, however, should not be the only book you read on infrared photography. This book could work as a companion piece to Joseph Paduano's "The Art of Infrared Photography", which provides more information on which color filters to use to get certain color results. The two together would make a fairly complete course in IR photography. Begleiter's book is good on a very technical level, though I think it would be more helpful to see actual images made with different conditions and exposures instead of graphs or at least in addition to the graphs.