Post your photography skills! (self-gloss)

i love this one

Originally Posted by JetBlast

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Recent stormy weather moving through our area-

JB

i really wish this were sharper, because it would be stunning! still overall very nice though

Originally Posted by Brian278

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Originally Posted by phryxis

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i really wish this were sharper, because it would be stunning! still overall very nice though

Me too.

Thanks phryxis.

Kind of off topic, but I really appreciate catching something so simple and creating a photo out of it. It generally seems like something one would ignore, it's just raindrops falling on a creek, but it can be so beautiful when shot the right way.

JB

Color IR of my favorite lake.

can u inform a novice as to how one takes IR pictures? they look pretty sweet...

Buy IR film and IR filter.

Originally Posted by totally epic

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Buy IR film and IR filter.

Well that's a start. Taking IR photos with a film camera is no easy task and it is very very expensive to buy the film and process it. Using a digital camera is far easier and cheaper.

Originally Posted by stamp0102

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can u inform a novice as to how one takes IR pictures? they look pretty sweet...

OK, the first thing you need to do is find out if your camera is IR sensitive or not (digital cameras).

With a point and shoot camera aim a remote at the camera and press any button. If you see a blinking white light then it's IR sensitive. The method for a DSLR is a bit different. Go into a dark room and manually set the camera for a 30 second shot with the aperture wide open which is probably F2.8 or 3.5. Fire the camera and hold the remote in front of the lens while holding any button. Once it takes the picture then preview it and see if you can see white flashes or trails. If you can then it's IR sensitive.

So if your camera is IR sensitive then the next thing you need is an IR filter. The most common filter is a Hoya R72 infrared filter or equivalent. The 72 filter blocks all light under 720 nm which is the threshold between IR and visible light. A 650 nm filter is cool for color IR because it allows some visible light to enter the picture and the results are bizarre to say the least. There are filters that are in the 900 or 1000 nm range which are really really cool for pure IR but they are expensive and it's a real ***** to use them. Super long exposures and high F stops equals giant headaches. Anyway start with a 72 filter and worry about the rest later.

Now the fun part, taking the pictures. For now I'll talk about black and white IR photo taking because it is far easier to do than color IR. First afix your filter to the camera lens. Turn it on and go into manual mode. Set your camera to take B&W images, ISO 200, white balance to auto or 5500K, shutter at around 15 seconds and your F stop at around 11. Oh yeah, a tripod is required. Focus the camera and fire away. In bright sun this will give you a starting point to work with. Adjust shutter speed and or F stop until you get decent images. One final thing, IR focuses ahead of normal visible light so keep that in mind if you're trying closeups. If the camera won't focus then go to manual focus and set it to just shy of infinity for scenic shots and you should be OK.

Color IR is an animal but well worth it if you can tolerate setting the camera up and doing the post processing. Here's an idea of how weird it is. My white balance for the pics above was 2500K with a Green 9 filter tossed in. The WB in color IR changes during the day and from scene to scene if there are clouds or haze. My camera has a manual WB mode and it eats whatever I feed it which makes my life a whole lot easier. If you cannot manually set the WB then don't even bother with trying color IR.

I'll explain how to do color IR photography and post processing if you really really want me to. It might take me a day or two........

thanks for the tutorial. i'll have to look into this further to test it out in the future.

Originally Posted by Crane's

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Color IR of my favorite lake.

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/e8e287d9.jpg


sublime.

Originally Posted by phryxis

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sublime.

Yes it is, it's one of my favorite photos.

Later I'm going to try to explain color IR post processing. I'm going to use a raw image and then explain 4 or 5 post processing options.

let's get less serious! these were taken from a party my brother and i hosted. my brother was the photographer. this is me.

Originally Posted by phryxis

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let's get less serious
LOL! Now that looks like some interesting post processing! OK, so how many images did you merge for each pic? And how did you do the masking, shadows? 600 IR pics and this is the only one that turned out what's called color IR perfect. What that means is the only thing you do in post processing is clip the histogram and invert the red and blue channels. The result should be snow white IR reflection and a deep midnight blue/black sky. Phryxis, get an IR filter for your camera, you will have a ball playing with this stuff.

Phryxis, looks like you missed a lightbulb in the last picture, guy's face. Neat shots though!

Originally Posted by Crane's

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LOL! Now that looks like some interesting post processing! OK, so how many images did you merge for each pic? And how did you do the masking, shadows?

600 IR pics and this is the only one that turned out what's called color IR perfect. What that means is the only thing you do in post processing is clip the histogram and invert the red and blue channels. The result should be snow white IR reflection and a deep midnight blue/black sky.

Phryxis, get an IR filter for your camera, you will have a ball playing with this stuff.

they're actually not severely edited, just contrast/brightness stuff!

we jumped off of the couch and onto a giant bean bag while my brother snapped shots from the floor

i'll look into an IR filter! so many camera toys to buy...