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.

More water, serenity and tranquility

All these pictures are from the same place as the last post. They come from experimenting with several conversions to false color, especially setting up the white balance. We'll see how it goes later, when I have more control over the white balance when taking the picture. I have some other IR taken in RAW, but I still need to learn how to deal with that. One of these days. Meanwhile, some others that I like.

I like this one below. The white of the trees always seems very appealing.

More water and trees.

And a place to sit down, relax and contemplate what is around us.

Water

The serenity, tranquility and peace of water seen with different eyes.

Even for the inhabitants of the pond

Tall grass moving with the wind

And just a refuge from everything

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.

First experiments in digital Infrared

Other than some experiments using 6x6 infrared film, I started playing with infrared photography with a modified Nikon D-40 in 2007. I am still not sure about the results; some of the images do not resemble the typical infrared images shown in books. Maybe it is just a matter of taking them when the light is just right.

Another issue is that I have not been able to set up the correct White Balance with the typical approach of using a patch of grass. For what I have read, it seems that a modified D-40 does not allow this feature. Grrrr!!!

These pictures were taken with a daylight White Balance and doing some post-processing. They were all taken in March 2007 at the Frances Slocum State Park in Pennsylvania.


Image straight out of the camera:

After converting to Black and White, it has a more typical infrared look, especially the trees in the background:

The next images are the result of playing with different types of color conversion:

Swapping the blue and red channels:

Modifying the image in LAB mode:

Still have to figure out a lot of different things, but sure it is fun !!!