One of my favorites

Same day, same place, same picture now three different approaches to false color processing. Not sure which one I like the most, maybe all the three the same. After all, I did like six or seven different processing techniques. I was not too happy with any of the B&W renditions though.

Somehow I tend to like the blue hues though.

Maybe more realistic?

Same scene, false color

These pictures come from different processing, all of them, including the B&W from the last post, from the same original picture.

This one below is somehow my favorite from this batch; I especially like the similar but different tones of the path on the ground and the grassy area around.

The more surreal colors in the one below make it also attractive, although it is somewhat similar to the duotone from the previous post.

A different processing technique, although it does not have enough punch for my taste.

Between the color and the B&W renditions, I would take the B&W for this particular picture as my favorite.

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.

Playing with White Balance

Or better, I should say playing with the neutral point as part of the post processing after an IR shot. The fist picture being B&W does not require this type of adjustment, but I just showed it for comparison.

Now, when we start venturing into the land of false color things can be a bit more complex. After all, we do not see infrared, so any color information is not real. Pretty much we choose what we like or what we find appealing.

It is all about choosing some pixels and deciding that those pixels will be the neutral reference based on our preferences.

All these three false color pictures have color information very similar to one another. Depending on the pixels that we choose the results may be totally useless. These are just three modes of pictures that I found acceptable.

Despite the overall change of color cast there are some colors that remain unchanged. At the very end, the color is not there so your choice is as good as mine.

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

Clouds, clouds and more clouds, part II

These pictures are the same clouds from the previous post, but now processed from Black & White. I guess it is just a matter of taste. A stronger contrast between shadows and highlights here or the unnatural colors from the previous post.

Either one gives very nice pictures, different from what we see every day. I especially like how the shape of the clouds are much more defined here compared to visible light. Reflectivity to IR of water vapor does the trick!

The green color in the trees reflects infrared very strongly, so they appear almost white in these pictures:

Different trees, all full of green, reflect IR light differently:

One of my all time favorites, both for B&W as well as false color:

I just thought that it is hard to appreciate how much clouds appear different in infrared than in visible light. Next time I will have to take pictures of clouds IR and also in visible light, so we can compare them better.

Clouds, clouds and more clouds.

Clouds seem to be one of the favorite subjects in Infrared photography. Clouds seem to have much more texture when photographed in IR rather than visible light. I am not that happy with how my pictures of clouds turned out to be; maybe these are not taken with the best light or during the best day. Still, I think they have some stronger dramatic effects:

I especially like the contrast between the clouds and the sky, even more when we have some ground area covered in grass:

And for a different type of processing, less strong, a bit more natural:

A couple more pictures showing the contrast between the trees, the sky and the clouds, these with a stronger effect:

And finally, one of my favorites:

I still need to do a better job of removing the different color casts and tints, but for now this will be it.