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I'm not exactly doing pro photography here; please forgive me. My baby monitor is mounted in a corner. It shines bright IR at night, and the walls are highly reflective, and I can barely see into the crib because the exposure is destroyed. I've tried a few things, including black sticky notes which might as well be white, blue painter's tape that is currently on the wall because it's better than nothing, and covering some of the emitters so they'd shine on the wall less, which maybe I didn't do right but it didn't help.

I haven't yet tried my black t-shirts, but I'm not hopeful. Is there a cloth, tape, or something on the market that is dark on the IR spectrum?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Have you tried aluminium foil or the gold/silver rescue plastic wrapping? both should be reflective for IR and thus might be able to cover some of the IR illuminators. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kai Mattern
    Aug 3, 2020 at 6:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ Infrared is also known as "heat". This might be a better fit for Physics.SE than for photography. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Aug 3, 2020 at 13:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ Assuming you want to reduce the brightness by covering up some of the emitters, then I second Kai Mattern's suggestion. Aluminum foil should be completely opaque. \$\endgroup\$
    – Solomon Slow
    Aug 3, 2020 at 14:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Michael C - The IR in this context is near infrared in the 1 micron region. Heat or thermal imaging is closer to the 10 micron region. \$\endgroup\$
    – user10216038
    Aug 3, 2020 at 16:52

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Doesn't need to be dark for blocking emitters- just needs to be opaque. Duct tape or any cloth tape over the emitters should do it. Your blue tape over the emitters instead of on the wall should help as well. The issue is that most dyes are transparent at near-IR wavelengths, so dark fabric or other dyed material will show up as white. Black paint (oils, acrylic, or latex) are usually pigment based so should retain their tone at the IR end of the spectrum. You could paint some panels of cardboard or other convenient material and hang them on the wall to kill hot spots.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Yeah a little duct tape covering the IR emitters should work and allow you to control how much to block. Alternatively you may be able to disable the IR night mode in the setup, depending upon the monitor. \$\endgroup\$
    – user10216038
    Aug 3, 2020 at 16:18

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