First Serious IR Attempts - Constructive Comments Please!

astrostu · May 21, 2007

I got an IR filter for Winter-Holiday-of-Choice last year and I finally had some free time this weekend to go out and really try to use it constructively. I shot about 6 different scenes (well, pointings) in two locations. I'm attaching the (somewhat large) pictures below, along with (when I took them) visible-light counterparts.

Some issues that I had were that for the second location, I needed a wider-angle lens so went to the kit lens which has a tremendous hot spot in the middle in IR. I tried to get rid of it, but it's still pretty obvious in the center (#5-6). I know it's there, so don't bother to comment on that. An issue in post-processing was that I could not get the sky blue as I've seen other folks here do. But, I got it that lovely sepia tone (setting the temp to 2000 K and the tint to -150 in RAW processing), which I kinda like.

I know that these shots aren't nearly as "artsy" as some others that've been posted here, so you don't need to tell me that they're kinda "blah" composition-wise. I'm interested more in technique or good/bad subject to use for IR comments. Though if you like the composition, you can tell me that, too.

#1 - Visible Light

#1 - IR Sepia

#2 - IR Sepia

#2 - IR Blue

#3 - Visible Light

#3 - IR Sepia

#4 - IR Sepia

#5 - Visible Light

#5 - IR Sepia

#6 - Visible Light

#6 - IR Sepia

#6 - IR Blue

ClarkKent · May 21, 2007

Wow, great post work!

astrostu · May 22, 2007

Thanks, CK.

Um ... bump?

doenoe · May 23, 2007

allright: first of all, some of them look a bit soft to me. How do you focus? Dont think there was wind, since the water looks pretty smooth.
I dont know how you proces them, but here is what i do: first open the photo in a RAW editor (cause you should in RAW, right?) With the little dripper, click on a piece of the photo that should be white (Most likely some leaves or grass). If needed, you can change the exposure. Dont over-do it though, cause you can get highlights then. Allright, thats prettty much the edtitor. Now open that picture in PS. Duplicate the layer and invert the copy (which is above the original layer) Then set the blend mode to Color. After that: levels, brightness/contrast and a unsharp mask.
And im still gonna say something about the hotspot (evil me): if you have a 50mm 1.8 MKII, its better to use that. Its easier to use a wider angle, but you just have to work around to get a nice comp. I think thats worth not getting a hotspot in your picture.
Hope this helps

astrostu · May 24, 2007

To focus, I used the automatic focus in visible and then used that focus setting once I put the IR filter on. I know that IR focuses at a slightly different position, but I thought that using f/14 would be enough to account for that.

To process, I opened them as RAW images, and then I took the white balance temperature down to 2000 K and the tint down to -150. The only other processing was to lower the blue a bit in Curves afterwards. That's for the "sepia" ones. For the "blue" ones I didn't make any adjustments in RAW, I switched the Red to read from Blue and switched Blue to read from Red (that's what folks here say is standard). Then I played a lot with the curves to try to get the plants white. I didn't do any sharpening.

Unfortunately, I don't have another wide-angle lens. I was planning on buying a nice 50 mm f/1.4 in July, but I'm buying a new desktop computer in August and I'm moving into a more expensive apartment in June, so I'm probably going to wait until Septemter before I decide if I need to wait longer to buy the new lens.