This paper reports an experimental study of the self-focusing process in iron doped indium phosphide at an 1.06 micron wavelength, identifying the influence of temperature, beam intensity and background illumination \RefereeOne{for two different iron dopings}. We point out that the iron ionization ratio is at the origin of different qualitative behavior previously reported and we show that it is possible to reproduce the said behaviors in the same crystal by applying a uniform illumination, allowing their eventual control for dynamic wave-guiding.