i have been asked by a couple of people on how i do my infrared photography.
i am happy to do this, but i have to say that i truly hate taking landscape photos in color. i think there is something surreal about IR photography and it has truly hooked me. i really like to take photos of people or inanimate objects and find that i am fairly decent at it. with the addition of IR to my repetoire, i find that my confidence has gone up because it is something that is seldom seen.
You will need an IR filter and some neutral density filters while shooting in Night Shot mode with the Sony cybershot series, which seem to be the best IR cameras on the market. The reason you want to shoot in nightshot mode is because you will be able to shoot it "live," which means no 3 or 4 second exposure and no tripod. I will be using a Sony F828 as my demonstration, but if you are using something else, simply disregard the neutral density filters because you definately won't need them
I use a Hoya R72 IR filter and a Hoya ND8 and an ND4 filter for my neutral densities.
I shoot in P mode so i can have control of the ISO and I used PSCS for post processing.
my tutorial is just one of many ways to do this, but i will post my most used way (if there are other people out there who do IR and have a different method, please ring on in).
First thing you want to do after you get your photo is to convert it to b&w.
I go to images > adjustment > channel mixer
From there check the box "monochrome." What this does is allows me to have control over the RGB (red green blue) channels. Simply converting to black and white doesn't allow you to do this.
After selecting the monochrome box i change the percentage of the channels.
I try to have a total combined percentage of about 140 - 150, just depends how saucy i feel
After looking at your photo you think to yourself, hey! the blacks aren't black enough, there's no punch to this photo!
well, lets punch it with some black!
image > adjustments > selective colors
when you're there you will see a window pop up and a drop down menu where you can choose from several colors...guess which one we will choose...that's right! black!
choose the black and adjust it, notice that it doesn't take a whole lot to make a difference. I chose a +12 in the black channel for this example.
This is what it should look like: http://www.anchoragechurchofchrist.org/chris/black.jpg
After that you can crop it to whatever your eye desires. you can also apply some sharpening through the USM (unsharp mask).
filter > sharpen > usm
then adjust accordingly.
This is the final result that i get, what did you get with your IR photo? http://www.anchoragechurchofchrist.org/chris/finished_2.jpg
The biggest thing you have to worry about is when you're dealing with the curves. Try not to blow your highlights. If you do, then ctrl+z to undo or simply use your dodge tool and bring back some of the detail (if you can).
hope this answers some of your guys' questions about IR photos and the process for it.
I am always subject to critique so ask questions or comments.
Really cool, and I'll give this procedure a try tonight after work. Friday evening I made a post in here about how I did IR conversions, and the main deviation is that before you monochrome in the channel mixer, you adjust the red and green channels' curves first. Also they mentioned using a 1 pixel gaussian blur on the green channel, to mimic the results of true IR film.
But also, I will repost my steps here to keep things consolidated for future reference:
Converting color photos to IR look:
In photoshop, open your image and view the Channels.
-Select the red channel.
-Image --> Adjust --> Curves
-Pull the curve down and to the right
-Select the green channel
-Image --> Adjust --> Curves
-Pull the curve up and to the left
-Apply a 1 pixel gaussian blur to the green channel (mimics IR)
-Select all channels (the RGB channel)
-Image --> Adjust --> Channel Mixer
-Click monotone checkbox
-Adjust Red to ~ +80
-Adjust Green to ~ +70
-Adjust Blue to ~ -50
Done. Quality decreases, so start with a large image and size down afterwards.
Possibly apply some stuff from both techniques to fine tune the results.
Cool Tutorial. I was rather curious how you do the color IR with the F828. I had that one and couldn't do the false color IR so I sold it and went with the 717 which works well.
I'm glad the tutorial was helpful to you fellow FMers.
Color IR for the 828 is very complicated, but it can be done. A lot of masking is required and a lot of time...
Perhaps, when I have the courage, I will post that tutorial on here.
