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Infrared photography

Posted: 08.10.2010 at 10:58 am
Category: Blog
Tags: photo editing retouching

article 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:

infrared photography

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:

infrared black white settings

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

infrared curves settings

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

infrared adjustment layer

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

infrared editing layers

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:

editing infrared photography

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:

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2 comments

  • Daniel Francis
    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.

  • sunnie
    11.30.2010

    You are welcome, Dan. Hope you will enjoy experimenting with infrared!
    Sunnie

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