Mysterious lane?

[DaveB]

I've been experimenting with a different IR filter lately, and I may have finally set up a PS action to process them in a reasonable way.
I grabbed this image while walking home from a job the other evening. What do you think of the result?



G3/89B, handheld (1/160s @ 105mm-equivalent)
Experimental PP (only global via adjustment layers)

[big pix]

Ahhhh......winter.......nice bit of work........

[Sheetshooter]

Dave,

It's a cracker. The delicacy and delineation of the foliage really gets to me along with the geometry of the whole.

Cheers,

[marcotrov]

Agreed it's a pearler alright. Must bloody try out the IR filter. Any conditions for use of the IR that are more ideal than others?
cheers
marco

[stubbsy]

Dave

This is excellent. Reminds me of some that Gooseberry did in SIngapore.

The puzzle for me is that I've seen Leigh's shots with an IR filter (I'm guessing you're using a modded camera) and they just don't work like this. Is it not possible to get IR shots like this with just a filter?

[DaveB]

The puzzle for me is that I've seen Leigh's shots with an IR filter (I'm guessing you're using a modded camera) and they just don't work like this. Is it not possible to get IR shots like this with just a filter?

Yes I'm using a modded camera (ie. the usual IR-blocking filter inside the camera has been removed, and replaced with an internal IR filter, in this case an 89B - similar to the Hoya R72).
The image you get with a combination of IR-blocking filter and R72 will be different to what you get with just an R72: especially for the wavelengths where the IR-blocking filter's attenuation is ramping up.

The white balance used is pretty xtreme to counter the weird colours: down around the 2000K mark.
Then in this image a Channel Mixer layer was used to swap the red and blue channels, then a variety of levels adjustment layers (in non-layer terms, Auto Color would be a good starting point).

Any conditions for use of the IR that are more ideal than others?

I'm not quite sure what you mean. This image was taken in Melbourne after 6pm so the middle of the day isn't the only time you can shoot with IR.
With "pure" IR filters that let in light which isn't differentially affected by the camera's Bayer filter array (the resulting images are monochromatic) you get a feel for what tones an object is likely to come out with.
With the R72-style filters that let in light which is affected by the camera's red Bayer filters, you have to combine this with how much red the visible colour of an object has (i.e. a green object will come out dark, unless it's reflecting a lot of IR light [like foliage typically does]).

But whatever expectation you have of the scene, it's always worth trying (or just looking at the LCD on a compact camera) as there's usually something waiting to surprise you!

[mudder]

Woah love it! Looks like Box Hill's iced-up Terrific...