Infrared with the human body

Shooting with an infrared digital camera reveals whole new tonal relationships which are often quite beatiful.  Diglloyd intends to explore infrared shooting considerably more, preferably with a true monochrome camera (when one emerges, as discussed in yesterday’s blog entry).

An interesting application of infrared photography is its ability to “see” a short distance beneath the skin.  Hold a bright flashlight against one’s hand, and you’ll see that intense red is visible on the other side—not infrared, but infrared no doubt penetrates even more deeply. Portraits taken in infrared, particularly of elderly subjects, reveal a face that looks far more youthful and sometimes rather different—the mask of age is removed and a gentle softness is typically imparted.  

Young children have relatively transparent skin.  The image below is the green channel of an RGB image, manipulated to emphasize the veins: