Infrared Photography, Part 2 - Photography with Imre - Episode 24

[C067142677]

Hi I have a quick question. There are a lot of pictures online where the trees are a nice tint of purple. That is the type of picture I am hoping to get, I was looking for a tutorial but came up short. Would you please tell me how to do that. I have a fairly good understanding of lightroom and photoshop, so any help would really go a long way

[tresflip]

HI again and thank you for your response.I tried again using a WB of grass. This seemed to work quite well. I do think my camera Canon 60D has a strong IR blocker as well. But it did work okay. Can I ask you, should the WB be done by taking a picture of grass with the IR filter ON so the grass is red? And is IR photography better when it is a blue sky bright sunny day? Thank you very much.

[binarygraphite]

@tresflip Personally I would set the WB manually (although I just do it afterwards in PS as I shoot RAW... but I understand the exposure is easier for some to see on camera). Since the filter is quick dark, I'm not certain how well setting the WB would be with the filter on, but either way should work I suppose. And shooting IR is essentially good anytime, but with sunny days the exposure tends to be shorter, especially if your camera is not IR modified.

[tresflip]

Hi

I really want to ask you about the effect you got. I have bought an infrared filter but the trees (green) are not white like yours. I don't understand what I am doing wrong. Is the filter not right? I have a suspision it isn't

[binarygraphite]

@tresflip There are a couple of things I can think of. First is what you've mentioned, but I think that might be unlikely (unless this was a very inexpensive "no name" brand filter which indeed is not IR). The more likely scenario is that the camera you are using has a strong IR blocking filter in front of the sensor, thus the near IR light is not captured. If possible, try the filter with another brand of camera to see how it performs with it.

[iamthe1337est]

I loooove these photos. Where can I see more?

[binarygraphite]

@iamthe1337est Do a search for "IR photos" or "infrared" on Flickr, lots of photos of this type there.

[6943cahill]

Great tutorial. I just got my hoya 72 filter in the mail...snapped some photos and followed this step by step only to find out that the cannon rebel t1i doesn't work well with infared unless you convert....so close, yet so far.....

[binarygraphite]

@6943cahill Glad you found the tutorial useful. I'm a bit surprised to hear that the Rebel doesn't work well with IR. I've seen several IR photos on Flickr taken with the cam and they look quite good (not with a converted cam either). What did you notice on your images? Can you describe them?

[6943cahill]

@binarygraphite The exposure to close to 30 sec. Great red photograph...but the leaves in the trees remained black or dark instead of a light color. Therefore the channel mixer could not switch the channels properly. The final image looks muddy and not surreal. Maybe it's just my exposure settings? Using it in full manual mode.

[binarygraphite]

@6943cahill I understand what you mean and that might be case. The color green reflects brightly in near IR light frequencies hence the white we end up seeing. So if the green leaves are showing up dark, then indeed the IR blocking filter on the imaging chip must be quite strong. You could try increasing the ISO and see if that helps, but otherwise I'm not sure what else could be done aside form converting the camera or using another one, both options which are not exactly convenient.

[MrSereda1]

Is my camera good for taking infrared photos? I have canon 550d and lens 11-16 Tokina .

[binarygraphite]

@MrSereda1 I haven't used that camera or lens so I can only guess. I searched on Flickr and it appears there are quite a few people using the 550D for IR photography and the images look quite good to me. As for the lens you could search the Web to see if there are any Tokina forums and ask there for opinions or perhaps just try out the lens with an IR filter and see how it performs. Most lenses are fine, but some exhibit a "hot spot" (internal reflections due to near IR light).

[AJ00OPS]

excellent !! well done.

[binarygraphite]

@AJ00OPS Thank you!

[MrSnapFlash]

Normally when I would do this sort of thing I would set a custom white balance in camera through the filter onto some sunlight grass or something... sorts out red tint on scene so you can get a good look at the basic unprocessed image before editing the rest in a RAW editor... just my personal preference... for me the white balance seems to work a little better in camera for some reason.

[binarygraphite]

@MrSnapFlash Back when I did this video, someone suggested or asked about that and apparently it does work quite well. I wish I could have included that tip in this video, but at least there's a mention on my blog about it.

[KCPhotography2010]

Dude!!! you have no idea how long i have waited to find out how to create colour infared!! i mean i love black and white infared but colour looks awesome as well thanks :) so much!

[binarygraphite]

@KCPhotography2010 You're very welcome! Happy shooting!

[m3g1]

i get like a big DOT around my focus point =(

[binarygraphite]

@m3g1 Oh no! :( What you are seeing is an internal lens reflection but due to infrared light versus visible light. Some coatings on certain lenses don't eliminate this effect and are thus prone to the artifact you are seeing. Some lenses do it, some don't. Try using another lens if you can to see if it doesn't exhibit this effect.

[pamike69]

Awesome thanks!!!

[binarygraphite]

@pamike69 You're very welcome! :)

[theUltinator]

Hi Imre, I love these images and want to get involved but I have nothing. What is a good reasonably priced entry level DSLR for these types of shots? I am also interested in HDR and Tilt-Shift is there a good all-round camera to begin with?? Any help would be awesome!

[binarygraphite]

@theUltinator IR photography is indeed unique and some shots can be amazing. Since you mentioned you're interested in tilt-shift photography, I'd personally recommend either Canon or Nikon (as they have several such lenses and may be easy to find second hand to save a few bucks) entry level cams such as the Rebel class or D3100/D5100 or D7000 if it's still in your price range. Hope that helps!

[hikinguphigh]

How do you get a deep blue sky or sea effect with white foliage.

Kind regards

[Alex2Times]

what editing software do you use bro?

[binarygraphite]

@Alex2Times Mostly Adobe Premiere CS5.5 and on some occasions After Effects as well.

[goldenguy12345]

@binarygraphite After Effects i find is sometimes better than photoshop!

[lidiaadrianalopez]

i've just bought a maruni IR cut filter! :O i'm so exited about it!

so far i'v taken some indoor photos but the exposure time is like 10 minutes! :O i want a sunny day to go outside!!!

[binarygraphite]

@lidiaadrianalopez That's awesome! I wish you the best with it and hope you capture some amazing shots!

[Mypsychedelicart]

I've found it! Just tried my RAW file and whoa - the magic is begun!

Thanks, dude, for the tutorial.

[binarygraphite]

@Mypsychedelicart Sorry I couldn't respond earlier, usually takes me a day or two to get online these days. Glad you found the answer and I appreciate the comment! :)

[Mypsychedelicart]

How you did get this photo from being reddish orange to this box on the right, where you can change WB, temperature and so on @2.11 ?

I can't find this in my Photoshop.

[drew2pac]

@Mypsychedelicart hey dude, you can do it via photoshop, but Adobe RAW should open up when you try open the pic. this is the best place to do it. if it doesn't open automatically, then right click it on bridge.

this is assuming you are shooting in raw

[Zi8er]

Excellent tutorial. Thanks very much.

[binarygraphite]

@Zi8er You're welcome and thank you for the comment!

[Adjiep198]

great !

[binarygraphite]

@uxa1 I had to do a little research on this as I don't have LR3, but apparently it doesn't have a mixer like PS does which allows one to swap channels.

[ptlofts]

how is it possible tha tthe original raw file is with natural color if whe n i photograph with the filter the image come out all red? once again, thanks.

[binarygraphite]

@ptlofts Hello again! This has to do white balance. Because the infrared filter blocks out almost all visible light, in other words all colors (except usually the very dark reds), the camera cannot compensate for this very well. In my blog post for this episode (see comments for the link) I had a suggestion for compensating for this. I personally don't bother adjusting in camera since I can do that easily enough in Photoshop (or some other image editors).

[ptlofts]

@binarygraphite Huumm.. Now I know what I was doing wrong. Thanks.

[ptlofts]

my IF always come out of the camera as a very dark red.. how do you come up with this light red? settings please. thank you.

[binarygraphite]

@ptlofts Hi! If I understand your question, you are getting a dark red image because of underexposure. Part 1 of my series has the settings; off the top of my head I think I was using f/4, ISO 200, and about 4 seconds for shutter speed. Try using a slower shutter speed and that should help (or of course you can open the aperture more, or use a higher ISO setting but keep in mind that will increase noise a little more).

[JamesGreen321]

Hey Imre it's me again! I just have another question if you will. I was looking on ebay for ir filters and I was thinking of getting one for roughly $10 but will this be a much poorer quality optic than say a hoya $50 filter? I ask as I'm working on a budget as I'm a student haha.

[binarygraphite]

@JamesGreen321 Hi James! It's of course hard to tell without seeing it, but generally said, less expensive filters tend to be somewhat poorer quality. But then again, that does not mean that they are unusable. I did a quick search on ebay uk and indeed there are quite a few filters under 15 pounds. I have a feeling that one of these less expensive ones would do the trick. On occasion I've been surprised by a few "cheaper" items. Good luck; I'll keep an eye on your Flickr page for your IR shots.

[JamesGreen321]

Great video, instant subscribe! :)

[binarygraphite]

@JamesGreen321 Thank you kindly sir!

[robheald1]

Excellent video once again :) Am I able to make a suggestion for a tutorial on HDR imaging? Thank you :)

[binarygraphite]

@robheald1 Glad you liked it! Of course you can make a suggestion. What's on your mind?

[robheald1]

@binarygraphite Any chance for a video tutorial on HDR photography? I've heard of it, and I'm sure you would make an excellent video on it. Thank you

[binarygraphite]

@robheald1 Oh, yes! That's what I'm planning for the next episode and you're the second to ask for one on it. I've just started outlining the script too.

[robheald1]

@binarygraphite Thank you :) I'm looking forward to it :)