Well, here goes.
If anything here seems garbled in my explanation, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll clarify.
I'm an airsofter by hobby, and an amateur photographer (I'm taking my first photo course and looking to get into it). Now a lot of airsofters do what's called military simulation (milsim for short) and actually go out in military gear and reenact operations and what not. My team and I plan on doing the same. All the uniforms and gear can be legally purchased online by pretty much anyone as long as they pay.
Now the US Army, for their new Army Combat Uniform, has special near-infrared patches that attach through Velcro to the uniform - they appear to be black and white under normal lighting conditions (visible light) but when viewed through image intensifiers, night vision and what not (IR sensitive devices) these patches glow. This is for IFF (identification - friendly / foe) purposes. (If you're glowing because of the patches, they don't shoot you)
Now, I'm just some high school kid, but I have an ounce of creativity in me, and I decided, what if I shot in infrared in the middle of the night and caught all my buddies with their patches and everything lit up? It would make for some really interesting photo effects!
Now my questions are about photography, so anyone can help (I know nothing about this field), but especially if you are more into photography.
I was thinking of obtaining infrared film, just putting it in the camera and shooting, maybe with an filter to distract some of the color out of it, but I wasn't preferring this because I've heard IR film has to be handled and processed carefully and much different from the color film I've been shooting, as well as - again, I'm an 18-year-od kid - the "instant gratification" component, and not knowing if I've taken the photo successfully or if my venture has just taken a nasty whack on my wallet.
So, in the interest of doing it all under one roof, I'm going to buy a dSLR and use it for photography, and would want to use it for this as well. I wanted to know if any of you had advice for me along the lines of:
1. Would this even work? I've heard dSLRs can shoot in infrared, but are they sensitive in the near-infrared range?
2. I've read online that a lot require modification. What would I need to do this? I can't modify the camera permanently. Are there lens filters that only pass IR that the camera will pick up on? If so, where can I find them?
3. Is it a practical idea (that is, can I do other things worth my while shooting in infrared when I'm not taking pictures of my buddies running around in Army uniforms)?
Thanks for any help anyone can give!
If anything here seems garbled in my explanation, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll clarify.
I'm an airsofter by hobby, and an amateur photographer (I'm taking my first photo course and looking to get into it). Now a lot of airsofters do what's called military simulation (milsim for short) and actually go out in military gear and reenact operations and what not. My team and I plan on doing the same. All the uniforms and gear can be legally purchased online by pretty much anyone as long as they pay.
Now the US Army, for their new Army Combat Uniform, has special near-infrared patches that attach through Velcro to the uniform - they appear to be black and white under normal lighting conditions (visible light) but when viewed through image intensifiers, night vision and what not (IR sensitive devices) these patches glow. This is for IFF (identification - friendly / foe) purposes. (If you're glowing because of the patches, they don't shoot you)
Now, I'm just some high school kid, but I have an ounce of creativity in me, and I decided, what if I shot in infrared in the middle of the night and caught all my buddies with their patches and everything lit up? It would make for some really interesting photo effects!
Now my questions are about photography, so anyone can help (I know nothing about this field), but especially if you are more into photography.
I was thinking of obtaining infrared film, just putting it in the camera and shooting, maybe with an filter to distract some of the color out of it, but I wasn't preferring this because I've heard IR film has to be handled and processed carefully and much different from the color film I've been shooting, as well as - again, I'm an 18-year-od kid - the "instant gratification" component, and not knowing if I've taken the photo successfully or if my venture has just taken a nasty whack on my wallet.
So, in the interest of doing it all under one roof, I'm going to buy a dSLR and use it for photography, and would want to use it for this as well. I wanted to know if any of you had advice for me along the lines of:
1. Would this even work? I've heard dSLRs can shoot in infrared, but are they sensitive in the near-infrared range?
2. I've read online that a lot require modification. What would I need to do this? I can't modify the camera permanently. Are there lens filters that only pass IR that the camera will pick up on? If so, where can I find them?
3. Is it a practical idea (that is, can I do other things worth my while shooting in infrared when I'm not taking pictures of my buddies running around in Army uniforms)?
Thanks for any help anyone can give!