Infrared photography

Used equipment to make this infrared shot:
- tripod
- remote for camera
- infrared filter
- 18-55 Nikkor lens.
When right place for making a photograph is found and tripod with camera are set up I usually do following:
- take away infrared filter from camera, make up composition and focus on some objects
- after camera is focused change lens focus settings from auto to manual
- put infrared filter back on camera which doesn’t try to refocus when focusing is changed to manual
- make shots trying different settings of ISO, aperture and shutter speed.
I use remote to make objects on picture more sharp as possible for this kind of shots.
Settings for camera when made this infrared photo: ISO 800, 2.5 secs at f/22 manual mode.
After a shot is made it needs to be edited to get that mystic fascinate look as infrared photographs suppose to be. Picture originally looks like this:
To desaturate image and correct levels of colours on it I used Black and White Adjustment Layer:
Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black and White
Adjustment Layers allow to change settings during editing comparing with settings from menu Adjustments which apply once.
Only red and yellow need to be adjusted on this photo and my final settings are:

To add more contrast I used Curves Adjustment Layer where a bit brightened highlights and darkened shadows.

I like warm colours and added New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter > Sepia with Density 100%.

You can always change settings of adjustment layers when double click on a layer thumbnail:

All previous editing made water much darker and I wanted it not to contrast too much with the rest of the view. I copied background image, moved it to the top of created layers, changed Opacity to 21% and added mask with black and white gradient so this layer covers only water area and bottom of some trees:

To make picture more lively I added some colour to the river. Underwater photo filter from Adjustment Layers (New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter > Underwater) matched this view exactly how I wanted to. I also put Density 100% for this filter and added mask with gradient so it covers only water. To exclude trees and edge this time from filter’s area I painted on mask with big soft brush and active Black colour.
The result looks like this:
© Sunnieweb.com 2009



11.27.2010
Hi Sunnie, just about to start experimenting with infrared, some really good tips to get started here so thanks for sharing…
Dan.
11.30.2010
You are welcome, Dan. Hope you will enjoy experimenting with infrared!
Sunnie