The following is an article by Steve Hoffmann of Hoffmann Photographer on the subject of Infrared Wedding Photography.

I was inspired to learn infrared wedding photography after seeing the images in the book Infrared Wedding Photography by Patrick and Barbara Rice and ALSO the infrared wedding images from Scott A Nelson. Check them out – very inspiring! Capturing infrared wedding images with film cameras was complicated. Using bracketing and screw-on filters, you literally shot ‘blind’ and then hoped for the best when you brought the film to the lab to have it processed. Not to mention that weddings are a huge time crunch. Screwing on/off filters to your lenses and setting up the bracketing was a great waste of time.

After I switched to digital cameras the process for infrared wedding photography became one step easier. The opaque IR filter #87 was still required over the front of the lens (which means you are still shooting blindly) but you were able to see the result immediately on the back of the camera. This eliminated waiting for the proof sheets from the lab. That was a pretty big leap in a positive direction!

It was not long before private parties began rebuilding old model digital cameras and putting the IR filter directly inside the camera. The converted Nikon bodies (D1x, D50, D70) with the built-in IR filter have been the easiest and most effective way giving the user the ability to COMPLETELY see through the lens AND have immediate results on the back of the camera. Awesome!

Last year I had an old Nikon D1X camera converted for my infrared wedding photography. It is a little bit heavy compared to the converted D70 that is more recently available. You can see that the results are as great as film ever was for infrared and 100x easier and more time efficient.

BTW, the true infrared look can NOT be duplicated in Photoshop. As many times as I have seen a ‘recipe’ online for creating ‘realistic digital infrared’ through Photoshop, it has NEVER been even close. The major reason for this is that infrared light reflects off of every single thing in your scene differently! How can you possibly accomodate for that in Photoshop? Check out this angel walking through the trees . . .


Infrared wedding photography takes a little bit of practice, but if you are already shooting in manual then you will catch on extremely quick. There are not many wedding photographers shooting in infrared. This is a great opportunity to create a small but effective selling point for potential clients.

Thank you for taking the time to learn with me. It is my hope that this article on infrared wedding photography will make you a better photographer.
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