Last Updated on 08/25/2018 by Mark Beckenbach
All images by Paolo Pettigiani. Used with Creative Commons permission.
With the breath-taking Dolomites among the most famous subjects and destinations of landscape photographers, it’s not surprising to find a lot of impressive work showcasing it in different ways. We’ve previously seen it rendered in classic black and white, in moody colors, and even set against the Milky Way. The latest in our favorite snaps of the Dolomites is the surreal set by Italian graphic designer and photographer Paolo Pettigiani, who gives us a unique, “unseen” view of the stunning peaks in mind-blowing infrared.
By photographing the Dolomites in infrared, Pettigiani presents us with a totally different view made possible by opening our eyes to the infrared (IR) spectrum. The foliage in particular is rendered in a strikingly different color. For the uninitiated, he explains that we cannot see IR light because it lies just beyond what is classified as the “visible” spectrum. But when we use cameras and films equipped with IR sensitivity, we can see a world “that can often look very different from what we are accustomed to seeing.”
To gain access to the otherworldly realm of the IR spectrum, Pettigiani used a Nikon D750 converted to a full-spectrum camera. The alteration involved removing the camera’s lowpass filter and replacing it with clear glass to make the sensor sensitive to UV, IR, and visible light. This modified camera became his tool to embark on an #InfraScapes project.
“Indeed, humans tend to believe in what they are able to conceive, to see, to hear. Though truth is wider than what our eyes are able to focus on. This is why I decided to specialize in infrared photography: to make the invisible evident. With #InfraScapes project, my aim is to show something that is broadly recognizable to the human eye, under a new and unexpected point of view.”
Visit Paolo Pettigiani’s website and Behance portfolio to see more of his infrared photos and other projects.
