I'm not much for themes and don't qualify anyway, as an administrator, but I do love IR and don't shoot enough of it. So just thought I'd toss this one out. Canon 5D3, super Color filter, converted to B/W in Nik Silver Efex, with a Gaussian Blur layer on top, masked to reveal the sharp original in the center area.
Last edited by Diane Miller; 08-15-2014 at 04:44 PM.
The foliage is very pleasing as is the gnarly tree. What f-stop did you use, and your settings in general. How do you convert? Do you swap out the R/B channels, and then adjust the HS and levels?
Specs on this image: Canon 5D, Super IR filter from LifePixel, Canon 50mm f/1.8, ISO 400, f/8, 1/350 sec. Different lenses will show a light soft-edged flare in the center of the image at smaller apertures, often being noticeable above f/5.6. That lens is remarkably clear of the effect, though. My 24-70 is horrible, and soft at all apertures.
My IR processing is very basic. I have done a little with channel swapping but as far as I know it's only for doing false colors and works to different degrees for the different transmission spectra of the various filters. I haven't gotten much I like from it and haven't done much with it. I don't even bother to do the white balance correction anymore. ACR/LR can't go far enough and you have to use DPP to get there. I get a raw image that is mostly rust-colored. If I shoot a companion JPEG, with the camera set to the "correct" WB, I get a tan and bluish image. But with my processing routine, surprisingly it doesn't matter which one I use, as far as final tonalities, so I go with the raw..
The exposure of different scenes can be very different, depending on how much sky is in the scene, so I have to remember to check the histogram and compensate for the exposure in camera until I get a decent histogram.
I do any necessary tonal adjustments in LR, but IR is usually low contrast and I usually don't need to do much. I open in PS and go straight to Nik Silver Efex and play in the Color Filter section, then sometimes a little in the top Global section -- often adding some Structure. Then I'll often do Nik Glamour Glow and sometimes blur the edges on a separate layer, masking the center back to the sharp original.
I love the leeway I have in SEP, with those color sliders, to make skies dark or light. Bring the Strength slider over about halfway and play with the Hue, then finesse with the Strength.
An IR contribution
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