saside Loc: live in pueblo co

Nice work Eric. You seem the guy to ask this quesyion. Have you thought about UV photos?

EricLPT Loc: Jonesborough TN

I have not thought about UV photos but I did look up UV photography after your question. I will look into it and if it doesn't involve a significant outlay of cash and camera gear, I might just try a few UV photos soon.

Thanks for the heads up.

Eric

TraceyG Loc: SW, Fl.

OK...drum roll please....my very first ever infrared photo's...not what you would call great, or even good for that matter! LOL...I just got my camera back, and all I had time for was my back yard...

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

You might want to white balance the camera, so the pictures come out more like this. :wink: :thumbup:


http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm80/steve40/thumb-1322686660540-img_744911.jpg

TraceyG Loc: SW, Fl.

Thanks! I will do that, I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong.

TraceyG Loc: SW, Fl.

Still not sure what exactly i'm doing wrong...it's getting better, but obviously not there yet.

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

Yea your getting there, you just didn't cheat like I did, and use an editor. :)

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

This poor old message board is doing QUAR things. :(

TraceyG Loc: SW, Fl.

LOL...no I didn't, I'm not even sure what I should do in editing...care to share?

billyzee Loc: Austin

you're right! I've only played with the IR settings in cs5 and wasn't too impressed but after seeing all of these great IR photos on this thread I will invest in an IR filter. Thanks I learned something as I usually do on UH.

EricLPT Loc: Jonesborough TN

Tracey,

Congratulations on joining the IR club! Here is a except from an email to another Hedgehoggian on how to process for B&W IR. It uses Elements but it shouldn't be too hard to jump it over to CS5:

I use an Hoya R72 which lets light in at the 720 nm wavelength, it is a deep, dark red.

Do the pictures taken this way come out red, or does the IR shooting take care of this?

The photos do come out red. For a while I set my camera to B&W capture mode but I found I got better looking photos, increased contrast and tonal range, shooting in color and then desaturating color during PP in Elements. I just go to Enhance>Adjust Color>Remove Color, I am using Elements v. 2.0. I have seen articles in the photo mags that run through several steps to desat, way too much work, the above works for me just fine. After that I crop, adjust Levels (& Curves too if needed, the histogram is usually a centered mountain and both darks and lights need to be brought in from the edges), sharpen a bit and save the image, that's it! Very simple, very easy.

When I shoot IR, I put the R72 filter over the lens, switch the camera to Spot Metering (if it is not there already, I use spot metering a lot to keep from blowing highlights in both visible light and IR) and meter off of the brightest part of the image and use the AEL button to lock exposure. Then I recompose the shot and capture the image. I HATE BLOWN HIGHLIGHTS ESPECIALLY IN IR, everybody has a photo pet peeve and that is mine. By using spot metering and locking the exposure in the brightest part of the image you can eliminate blown highlights 99% of the time, it is easy and it works. To me consistently blown highlights (we all blow highlights on occasion, but most of the time?! Unacceptable!) tells me the shooter doesn't know what the heck they are doing. There is no IR capture setting on the camera, just screw on the R72 and you are good to go.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Looking forward to more from you soon,

Eric

ps here's an old vertical IR pano of a really big tree near my house.

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

I use PS Elements 9. I used the color channel mixer to Gray Scale it, and a plugin called Contrast Master to give it some dynamic clout.

Neither of which are native to elements, they are both add on's. :)

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

I didn't wrote that, I don't knew who did wrote-it but twernt me. :)

Wal I lucked agin, and I did wrote the last half. Surry, :)

TraceyG Loc: SW, Fl.

Thanks Eric and Steve, I don't have PS or elements. I'm on a mac and I use aperture, but give me some time, I should be able to figure this out.

I just went out to the back yard again and am shooting blind (it's pretty dark out right now...just trying some diff stuff to see what I come up with. There is still a definite yellow tint, but I guess it will just be trial and error. I will work more with the histogram too. One thing, I just took two shots that were basically on the same settings and they came out very diff...here they are, in all their horrible-ness....LOL

BTW...both on AV ISO 200 f/5...one right after the other...I did use a tripod due to the dark.

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

The first looks sort of like, the light meter went to sleep. :lol: The second looks like it woke up, and correctly read the light. Cameras are sometimes funny that way.

Elements starting with 9, works on Mac. When I bought 9 I got two disk's, one for windows, and one for Mac. Right now 9 is pretty cheap, as 10 has just been introduced. The biggest difference in the two, is just some interface stuff.