New camera, new pictures

These new pictures have been taken with a new Nikon D-60 modified by Life Pixel using their Enhance Color filter after removing the standard IR filter. I have to say that I am more pleased with these results than the pictures that I got from my older D-40 although I believe a good part of the problem was the inability of the D-40 to modify the white balance in a controlled way.

All these five images are the result of monochrome processing from the same picture. The one below is the result of a direct grayscale conversion.

These two images come from discarding a color channel or adjusting the channel mixer for a monochrome output:

A sepia filter in the monochrome image gave me this result:

And playing with doutones for the same monochrome image gave me this one:

It is hard to say which one I like the best. Also, because of the Enhance color filter, the results do not seem too spectaular in B&W images. Maybe the light in the scene didn't help too much either. But the duotone, the last one, seems to be the one I like the most from this set. Next time, some color processing from the same picture.

From the lighthouse, in black and white

The trip to Cape May, NJ did not result in the best infrared light, especially for false color images. I did manage, however, to get some decent pictures when converted to black and white. All these are taken from the lighthouse.

The green color in the leaves has a strong IR reflection, making the trees to appear almost white.

The beach and the sand...

More trees in a picture with the hotspots typical from some IR images.

Not a good Infrarred Day

Cape May, NJ. 5/2008

Not all days are good for shooting in Infrarred. The experts say that the days or the times that seem to be good for regular photography are not good for Infrarred photography. My problem is that I still don't know what is a good day for regular photography, let alone infrared. And besides, when you find yourself at a place, with your infrared camera, you better start shooting it. Just in case...

So that was not a good day for IR photography. Looking back, the sun was bright, there were no clouds and the lighthouse at Cape May did not reflect much IR right. The tree leaves did some, but overall, all the pictures had a strong color cast.

After some processing, mostly adjusting the neutral tones, this is what I get:

Changing it a little bit, gives me this one. Nothing too different, just the cast is a bit different.

Or with choosing a different point as my neutral one:

They were all basically the same color distribution, just a different cast. The one below is applying a sepia filter after converting to black and white IR:

And finally just a regular B&W:

So nothing to be too excited about as far as IR photography goes.

In Black and White

Trees seem to be one of the most popular subjects for infrared photography. These are some pictures of trees in infrared B&W. All from a converted Nikon D-40, April 2007.

I like the picture below: The grass and the leaves of the trees reflect the most infrared light and so they appear white:

How would these images look with some color processing? There are many variations, but these are my favorites:

And:

Because of being a false color there are many possibilities to coming out with a final image.