Infra-Red for Pocophone F1

Isn’t this supposed to be about photography? Well, yes and given the number of people out there who’s primary photographic tool is their phone, I thought I’d spend a few minutes on software specifically for the Xiaomi Pocophone F1 and the Xiaomi Mi 8.

CameraIR for Pocophone

I’ll grant you this is for the front-facing cameras only but non-the-less a worthwhile addition to already useful phones – in my case the F1. A short time ago, I picked up CameraIR for Android.

I checked on the web and to say the least, the promotion for this free APP is understated. NO special tricks like phone rooting, just install the APP from the Google Play Store and off you go. As you might imagine the resolution is limited to something like 640×480 as the IR sensor on the front of the phone was put there for low-light facial recognition – but it WORKS and for a bit of fun with real (not fake) infra-red, worthwhile.

The last time I played with infrared photography would be sometime in the 1980s with some special IR film. This is far more fun just because it is convenient – and with the massive range of photo filters and tools available on today’s phones – it could not be easier to make a start with IR photography.

IR photo on the Pocophone F1 - trees

I took the above photo in full sunlight (with a few clouds) late afternoon in the depths of rural Northumberland. No tricks or effects, just a simple photo who’s shades are determined by IR, not visible light – and what a difference that makes. Because this uses the front facing camera, you have no viewfinder and even the shutter button is on the wrong side which makes taking photos interesting – but there it is. The end result looks nothing like the scene I saw with my bare eyes.

IR photo plus filter no Pocophone F1

Above I used Snapseed on the F1 to simply add a spot colour to the foreground, a lengthy process that took all of 2 seconds and as you can see, no skill 🙂

The photo above looks reminiscent of a mushroom cloud at first glance but is simple unprocessed IR. Note that the field is full of blue, purple and pink flowers – none of which are relevant or visible in IR as they give off similar amounts of heat, unlike the river which here is quite cool. Those “storm clouds” are in fact just light cloud, typical of Northeast of England Spring weather.

To keep things in perspective, this colour photo was taken on the same afternoon, same phone, same location using normal photography. Note in the photo above, reflections make the river Tyne look lovely yet the IR camera was having none of it 🙂

One more photo for you – taken indoors – this is the BLACK, completely NON-transparent plastic case for my Bluetooth earbuds and yet you are looking straight through the case at my fingers and the internal battery for the buds.

If you want to know more about the Pocophone F1, just register over my tech blog and hit the SEARCH. Be aware that fake-looking email registrations could well be trapped.

Leave a Reply