{"id":917,"date":"2026-09-13T15:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T22:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/?p=917"},"modified":"2026-09-13T15:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T22:07:08","slug":"return-to-lake-merced-infrared-testing-ilford-sfx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/2026\/09\/13\/return-to-lake-merced-infrared-testing-ilford-sfx\/","title":{"rendered":"Return to Lake Merced: Infrared testing Ilford SFX"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilford printing papers were my favorites when I returned to the public darkroom to print, so I decided to give Ilford’s monochrome films a try. I’ve heard great things about their SFX film, which has extended red sensitivity, providing conventional black and white when shot at ISO 200, subtle infrared effects with a dark red filter, and bolder infrared effects with an R72 filter. I wanted to know more!<\/p>\n

\"Monochrome
Natural-looking exposure. The infrared nature of it isn’t dramatic.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of my popular early infrared work was made at Lake Merced, a large lake in the southwest corner of San Francisco. I returned there with a tripod to bracket my exposures, shooting the film at ISO 25 and 12 with a tripod and the R72 filter that blocks all visible light.<\/p>\n

\"Monochrome
Longer exposure (metered for ISO 12). The contrast is higher, the grasses are brighter.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both speeds provided pleasing results. ISO 25 makes the images appear more natural. I prefer higher contrast and more drama, with darker water and brighter grasses, visible when metering at ISO 12.<\/p>\n

\"Monochrome<\/p>\n

These images also remind me of the value of an interesting sky!<\/p>\n

\"Monochrome<\/p>\n

The red filter tests, which allowed me to use shorter exposures, also looked quite natural, with less of the glowing “Wood effect” (named after someone, not after plants) which I prefer. The scans of my December tests at Land’s End went to a different service and expired before I could download them. These phone screenshots give you a sense of the red filter look.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

While I’d had high hopes of getting the bold effects with the red filter, they are subtle.<\/p>\n

Ilford’s SFX film is satisfying, especially with an R72 infrared filter. It’s main competition is Rollei Infrared, which was in short supply for a while.\u00a0 Ilford’s SFX is widely available, and will be my choice when I want to shoot IR on film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ilford printing papers were my favorites when I returned to the public darkroom to print, so I decided to give Ilford’s monochrome films a try. I’ve heard great things about their SFX film, which has extended red sensitivity, providing conventional black and white when shot at ISO 200, subtle infrared effects with a dark red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,2,19],"tags":[81,48],"class_list":["post-917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analog-film","category-infrared","category-monochrome-black-white","tag-fuji-gs645s-wide-60","tag-medium-format","entry","fw-tab-6 fw-tabr-4","has-featured-image"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026.01.11-IR-Lake-Merced-Ilford5310007.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":933,"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions\/933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegraves.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}