Photo of the Week 2022-09-12

' log 'n stone '

 

Infrared capture using Kolari IRChrome filter on a dual-spectrum converted (visible & infrared) Canon EOS M camera.

 

I recognize that not everyone enjoys the many different looks of infrared imagery, I do though, very much. I enjoy experimenting with the variety of processing options,, learning more as I go along. It offers a change of pace and can help keep the creative juice flowing.

 

For this image, the filter-camera combination produced an 'aerochrome'-like image with red foliage, blue skies and otherwise normal colouring for the rest of the scene. Typically such an image would be processed to emphasize the red and blue. I arrived at a version that does exactly the opposite and decided I like it. Far from the actual lush green of leaves and grasses, there is enough 'reality' in this set against the lifeless brown to intrigue the viewer.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-01-31

 

Continuing with this year's creative foray into winter IR photography.

' wonder winterland '

 

The shapes sculpted by wind and snow are wondrous, and in infrared become otherworldly ...
 

Picking up on the conversation from last week, the challenge of lens performance in IR can make things quite interesting. For the image above, I used the Canon EF-M 18-55 standard zoom. The performance of this lens for infrared depends on shooting conditions given my experience. In harsh sunlight it can produce a 'hot spot' in the centre of the frame at medium to small apertures. My default aperture for most shooting is f/8 and for IR, this lens performs better at f/5.6 or lower, making depth of focus an issue for some shots. Taking the image above as an example, I was able to get reasonable focus sharpness at 18mm with f/5.6 for the foreground snow drift, which is the main subject. The background however is nowhere near sharp and this was acceptable as the birch tree and distant cottage chairs provide some context without challenging the main subject for the viewer's attention. No seen, is the hot spot that required some tweaking in post processing to remove a colour and brightness shift. Given the subject of the photo, this was not difficult however with different subject matter it could prove quite challenging.

 

The journey continues ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-01-24

 

Always working to keep the creative juices flowing, I recently combined my desire to get out and hike in the cold fresh air with an idea to try some infrared (IR) photography ... with a manual focus 8mm fish-eye lens.

 

Working in IR offers both significant challenges and broad creative opportunities. The challenges come when switching from 'normal' photography, capturing visible light in a more "what you see is what you get" process to capturing infrared light in a more "what will I be able to create from this" process. The later is more akin to B&W photography in my opinion as we don't see in IR just as we don't see in B&W. Greater familiarity with B&W photography makes that process more intuitive, while IR photography has a greater trial and error component for me at my current level of expertise.

 

 

limestone arch

downstream

down the tracks

 

 

The first challenge comes when selecting the gear that will be used for IR photography. Digital camera sensors, unless modified, are made to see only light in the visible wavelength spectrum. IR filters or a modified camera will be required to get started and there are a number of choices.Camera lenses are designed for optimum performance with visible light and may perform poorly when shooting IR images. There are plenty of online resources that offer information on these aspects of IR photography and Google is your friend if you want to get into it more detail. Alternately, you could send me a question via the comment section or by email and I'll see if I can offer some assistance.

 

Once the decisions related to camera, filter and lens have been made, it's on to the capture phase of working in IR. This is really just the process of collecting the raw materials that will be crafted into a final image. For the most part, infrared images straight out of camera (using filters or a converted camera) are not the end result in this genre. I say for the most part, because this is really a more abstract pursuit but that depends on the artist ...

... yes the "Artist", and like all art, it may or may not be for you whether photographer or viewer.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-03-09

Shooting as much as I do, it's easy for images to slide further and further back into lesser seen sections of the catalogue. I've taken to flagging images in various ways in an effort to minimize this. Some are flagged for future processing, others are processed and flagged as candidates for posting, still others, the best, are flagged to be printed.Still, some fall through the cracks and it's a pleasant surprise when they are "rediscovered".

Recently while performing some file maintenance on the image catalogue recently, I spotted shot that I had planned to work on but, as happens, had found a crack. Perhaps because it is and infrared capture that typically needs some processing to evaluate properly, I had not flagged it, perhaps because I was focused on another series of images. I can't recall.

"Rediscovered", I immediately flagged it and later processed it with standard Red-Blue channel swap, cropped in the Golden Ratio and processed it with a little contrast tweak.

Spring Creek - IR

This week's photo was captured one morning while exploring the backroads of the Bruce Peninsula. After making some conventional exposures of the scene, I used the infrared modified EOS M to capture this scene with 590 nm filter. 



DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-09-16

I've put the sunset photo posts on hold while I've been out exploring the world with my infrared converted camera. Not everyone will be a fan of this recent work, I get that and I'm OK with it. This blog and the path of it's posts log a 'Photographic Journey', one that is still underway, turning unexpectedly at times and perhaps looping back at others, always moving ... not necessarily forward, sometimes slow, imperceptibly slow, sometimes quickly ... always exploring.

In recent weeks, I've been deliberately concentrating on photographing heritage bridges in the Grand River Watershed in infrared then post processing using different methods ... exploring.

For this week's images of the Irvine Street Bridge north of Salem, the processing took a curve when the overcast skies created a blue colour cast to anything not foliage. Blue concrete and limestone rock simply did not look right. I guess one could say that the IR images I been posting all don't look right, but in this case I was exploring alternate processing methods and they just didn't give me what I was after ... until I removed the blue.

And now we have 'sans bleu'

Irvine Street Bridge - IR sans bleu

Irvine River - IR sans bleu

Irvine Arch - IR sans bleu

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-09-09

Inspired by photographing and researching the history of the "Stone Road Bridge", I've noted the locations of a number of other interesting bridges to photograph in the Grand River Watershed.

After returning from a photo outing, I found the paper "ARCH, TRUSS & BEAM - The Grand River Watershed Heritage Bridge Inventory. Previously aware of some of these bridges, I've decided to add them and others to a list of locations to photograph.

The project started with captures in Infrared (IR) and may continue in IR, or it may wander into something different. We'll see ...

In this post, I continue with these images of Chamber's Bridge, a bridge I had visited several times previously. The first visit resulted in a favourite image of a fly fisherman casting his line.

This time I wanted to capture the bridge, in infrared

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-05-27

With fresh green springing everywhere around, I was encouraged to break out the EOS M  converted for infrared photography and venture into the ethereal ...

ethereal fern grove

... with some false colour processing.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-02-12

If a foot falls in the forest and no one else is around, does it make a sound?

...

...

Yes, a very, very soothing sound.

forest footfalls

Something wasn't right, something was missing ... oh ya, that peaceful walk in the woods I was meaning to take on freshly fallen snow.

Even with a considerable amount of time spent outside puttering about, clearing snow from the driveway and parking area both Saturday and Sunday mornings, with having made time for the first x-country ski of the season, with time outside to breathe in the fresh crisp air, there was still something ...

I needed to walk among the trees, feel the crunch of snowshoes, feel the icy touch of falling snow, hear the beating of my heart, hear the silence of the forest ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-05-15

enchanted pond

 

 

Spring, morning, sun, birdsong, cool breeze blowing and a relaxing hike along a local trail.

I've photographed in similar conditions along this trail a number of times, but this time I decided to photograph in IR and explore what I could extract with some post processing later.

Perhaps it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it and  ... it sure was nice to get out and scratch the creative itch.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-04-03

I've been reminiscing again ... going back through shots from my first trip to Killarney several years ago ... and knowing I need to go back. Soon ...

I've always liked something about the original capture for this image, but until my recent foray into false colour processing I wasn't able to process it and bring out the surreal quality that was there. All it took was a relaxing weekend at home, editing time, tunes and some post processing work to get a result I was satisfied with.

Chikanishing Moonrise

It can be difficult to visualize the final outcome with infrared captures. There is so much that can be done in post processing to alter the image recorded by the camera. In order to realize the full potential of this genre, I need to work with it much more, not just in post processing but out making capturing images of a wide range of subjects in a wide range of conditions.

I'm just getting started ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-02-27

I'm eager to get out and shooting with my recently converted EOS M camera body. Winter conditions are not ideal for IR, so I spent some time this weekend looking through the limited number of shots made with a Canon G6 Point & Shoot that was converted a few years back.

Not only was it fun to be reminded of my initial exploits into IR, but also of a visit to one of the favourite places I have visited. Killarney ON is a place that found it's way into my heart and spirit, thankfully refusing to let go. The beauty of Killarney needs no enhancement ... but that's not to say one can't portray different interpretations through a variety of media and techniques. 

Chikanishing Trail, Killarney - An Infrared Interpretation

I feel the gentle pull of Killarney ...

DJE