I became interested in full spectrum / infrared (IR) photography when I was looking into have my old camera modified to make it more sensitive to the Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) emission wavelength, or what is otherwise known as an astro modified camera. Many nebula and some galaxies emit a strong signal in this wavelength, and modified cameras can isolate and record this signal.

My research told me that there are lots of modifications you can have done to cameras that allow you to capture parts of the light spectrum otherwise not visible to human eyes. It turned out that the most flexible mod is a full spectrum modification because by adding different filters you can achieve the same capabilities as an astro modified camera, but you can also shoot in infrared wavelengths by applying IR filters, and the full spectrum of wavelengths if you shoot with no filters. I could also shoot in UV wavelengths but personally I don't like UV photos...not of people anyway, maybe plants and animals would be nice but UV pass filters are extremely expensive.

I was also swayed to a full spectrum camera by the fact I could pick up a secondhand FS camera for much less than it would cost to have my camera modified. Filters are not cheap, but I could buy them piecemeal as I went along if it turned out to be something I liked. What I've discovered is IR photography is funky monkey kinda stuff, it is surreal and otherworldly! It's amazing to "see" a whole other world than the one our eyes perceive. It is harder to capture halfway good photos compared to my stock camera, the filters can be hard to see through and the exposure characteristics are very different to my other DSLRs. I need a lot lot lot more practice in both capturing and processing images but it's fun. Unfortunately some of the photos below I forgot to record the wavelength of the filter I used, whoops!

IR (720nm filter)

IR (720nm filter)

IR (550nm filter)

Gallery (click to review)

Full Spectrum. It was amazing to see these colours in the photo because it was a very drab colourless day and the scene almost looked monochrome to my eyes

IR (720nm fliter

IR (720nm filter)

IR (760nm filter)