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G6 and IR photography

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Pat

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Well, I tried out IR on my G6 last fall but was not pleased with the blotchiness in the skies on the resulting photos. I did not come up with a good way to get rid of it until this weekend when I had time to work on it. See the results below. This is my first ever IR photo. Let me know what you think of it.

Is the G6 good for IR? Having never done this before, it's hard to say. But I think it's hard. First off, you need a tripod. The exposure on this shot was 1 second. Yes, it was at ISO 50, but there was enough noise at that setting, so I can't imagine the noise if I had shot at a higher ISO. And I'm not sure why there was so much noise in the sky. At ISO 50 I expected to get much cleaner results. I think there are probably much better cameras to use for IR because they are more sensitive to that wavelength.

The post processing also wasn't easy. As I said, I couldn't find a good way to get rid of the noise in the sky until this weekend, and I almost gave up on this pic. But lots of post-processing is not uncommon for colored IRs, so if you're willing to do it, you can get decent results. There is still some large patches of blotchiness in the sky and if anyone knows a good photoshop technique to even out the area Id love to hear it. The blur tool was ineffective on such large areas and cloning did not work.

I am looking forward to trying out more IR photography with the G6 this spring. Supposedly you get the best results with newer foliage as it is more sensitive to IR rays, and this was shot at the end of October.



--
Pat
 
Pat..The image is beautiful!!! I messed around a couple of days and couldn't get anything close to what you created. Please share with me some of your techniques because mine are the PITS..LOL Thanks so much for shaing this. It gives me HOPE:)

Tascha
 
Hello Tascha. I'm glad you like it.

It took a lot of hard work. As I said, use a tripod. Then I would stick to ISO 50-100 because even at that setting you may get horrible blotchy noise in the sky. It is hard to focus the G6 with the R72 on, so either put it on manual focus and use hyperfocal settings or set it to infinity OR just take lots and lots of pics with the hopes that one will come out focused. I got a lot of pics that were not in focus. Oh, and use raw.

In ACR, I converted it with a temperature of 2200 and a tint of +7. Then in PS, I used auto levels, went into color balance and moved the red slider to the left about 10, then switched the red and blue channels. There will probably be some redness in the center of the photo. So go to hue/saturation and select the reds and move the saturation down until the redness disappears -- perhaps all the way to the left. Then choose the magentas and move the lightness up about 30 or 40.

To get rid of the blotchy skies I had to use the paintbrush with a blue selected from the sky and put it in color mode. I simply painted over the blotchiness. I did try Levy's gaussian blur technique first but that didn't work. (BTW, he has a terrific IR gallery.) I was just about to give up totally on colored IR for the G6 before I finally figured out how to get the colored blotches out of the sky.

There are other things I did to get to the final pic, but those are the basic steps for getting a colored IR effect. Tascha, feel free to email me if any of this doesn't make sense or you want more explicit explanations. I'll be happy to help. IR can be fun with the G6 if you're patient and don't mind post-processing.

--
Pat
PhotoNewbieDX said:
Pat..The image is beautiful!!! I messed around a couple of days and
couldn't get anything close to what you created. Please share with
me some of your techniques because mine are the PITS..LOL Thanks so
much for shaing this. It gives me HOPE:)

Tascha
Click to expand...
 
I can't view the picture.

sue anne
----------------------------------
Pat said:
Well, I tried out IR on my G6 last fall but was not pleased with
the blotchiness in the skies on the resulting photos. I did not
come up with a good way to get rid of it until this weekend when I
had time to work on it. See the results below. This is my first
ever IR photo. Let me know what you think of it.

Is the G6 good for IR? Having never done this before, it's hard to
say. But I think it's hard. First off, you need a tripod. The
exposure on this shot was 1 second. Yes, it was at ISO 50, but
there was enough noise at that setting, so I can't imagine the
noise if I had shot at a higher ISO. And I'm not sure why there
was so much noise in the sky. At ISO 50 I expected to get much
cleaner results. I think there are probably much better cameras to
use for IR because they are more sensitive to that wavelength.

The post processing also wasn't easy. As I said, I couldn't find a
good way to get rid of the noise in the sky until this weekend, and
I almost gave up on this pic. But lots of post-processing is not
uncommon for colored IRs, so if you're willing to do it, you can
get decent results. There is still some large patches of
blotchiness in the sky and if anyone knows a good photoshop
technique to even out the area Id love to hear it. The blur tool
was ineffective on such large areas and cloning did not work.

I am looking forward to trying out more IR photography with the G6
this spring. Supposedly you get the best results with newer foliage
as it is more sensitive to IR rays, and this was shot at the end of
October.



--
Pat
Click to expand...
 


I resaved the jpeg in progressive mode. I let my photoshare account expire and have been using some photo hosting sites until I find a home gallery (probably pbase), but for some reason my jpegs saved in baseline standard mode are not coming up well with the photo hosting sites. Anyone know why? I had no problem with this when I used photoshare. What jpeg mode is best to save for the web?

--
Pat
David Haynes said:
photo doesn't come up on mine either
Click to expand...
 
Tascha,

For starters you ought to get out of the pits.

Remember that IR in effect is HEAT, not visible light. things which photograph well is stuff such as a landscape dotted clouds on a clear sky, the clouds which is hit by the sun will be light and the sky which is cold will be almost black. Same thing with trees, the leaves which are thin and easy to heat will be light.

The actual focal plane of IR is DIFFERENT from visible light, if you are focusing at something like 20 feet, then you would need to back-off slightly and set your focus to about 17 ish feet. (I got that number from checking a bunch of my prime lenses which all is marked with IR focal points.) Note that this value is NOT always the entirely same thing.

Since your camera probably is not marked with a IR focal point, try to focus about 10% closer than where you want your focus plane to be, that should get you close, but for this event lets hedge our bets, and set your camera to f.8 or better (do the Pro1 have f11?)

REAL IR is as I said before heat, most digital cameras are very sentisive to what is near visible IR, (being sentisive to real IR would mean being able to photograph a footprint on the floor or get a glow from a hotplate)

Because it is near visible it also means that what we really is photographing and getting blown away by in pictures is the result of different materials absorbing or reflecting sunlight differently to the camera in this spectum than in the visible spectum, so having some good contrasts in the image helps greatly. The surface reflection is really what makes a IR image pop, so go for something which is hit by sunlight, and try for raking or edge light for contrast.

So since what we are photographing is near Visible, becuase of that think of the filter as LONG exposure, shooting with high ISO tends to create some rather nosiy images. Strangely today everybody expects noiseless images at 1600 iso, when I started we used HP5 for effect (read grain) at a wild 400-800 iso, and nobody expected anything else. (smile) how the world have changed. So for great images with a IR filter, lets start with long exposure times. If you have a cable release that is a great thing, otherwise start with the self-timer.

OK time to take a picture to get out of the pitts.!

Pull out a small tripod or bean bag , set it up for a landscape, use ISO 50 and apperature f8. you can shoot out of your window - but if the weather do not let you out, then there is also not much IR contrast outside. - Try to get 90 degrees to the sun, get some highlights on the ground and some in the sky, a classical image is for some reason light-houses with sun on the one side and wild clouds, it have hot and cold areas which is what we are interested in.

Camera on tripod, iso 50 , camera to A for apperature set it to 8 and bracketing, focus a smidge closer than the object area, put the filter on and let it rib... shoot a range of pictures with the auto bracketing and go look at them.

This should get you something pretty clean and working.

Yes you can use handheld, but start with using support and work your way up.

Bo
 
Thanks for the info on IR,Bo.

Don't forget that with digital camera's(save D-SLR's),f8 is more like f22 or greater,on a 35mm film camera.

f2.8 on digital anf film,gathers the same amount of light,but because the focal length is smaller with digital,(due to smaller sensor),the field of view becomes greater.So f2.8 on a digital is more like f8 or f16 on a 35mm film camera.

On the G6/S70,or other camera's using the newer 7MP 1.1/8"CCD,it's believed that diffraction occurs at f8,and one should use f7.1 instead,to assure best image quality.

Here's some IR I've done with digital.:

S30 with B&W 093 IR



S70 IR with B&W 093



ANAYV
Bo Lorentzen said:
Tascha,

For starters you ought to get out of the pits.

Remember that IR in effect is HEAT, not visible light. things
which photograph well is stuff such as a landscape dotted clouds on
a clear sky, the clouds which is hit by the sun will be light and
the sky which is cold will be almost black. Same thing with trees,
the leaves which are thin and easy to heat will be light.

The actual focal plane of IR is DIFFERENT from visible light, if
you are focusing at something like 20 feet, then you would need to
back-off slightly and set your focus to about 17 ish feet. (I got
that number from checking a bunch of my prime lenses which all is
marked with IR focal points.) Note that this value is NOT always
the entirely same thing.

Since your camera probably is not marked with a IR focal point, try
to focus about 10% closer than where you want your focus plane to
be, that should get you close, but for this event lets hedge our
bets, and set your camera to f.8 or better (do the Pro1 have f11?)

REAL IR is as I said before heat, most digital cameras are very
sentisive to what is near visible IR, (being sentisive to real IR
would mean being able to photograph a footprint on the floor or get
a glow from a hotplate)

Because it is near visible it also means that what we really is
photographing and getting blown away by in pictures is the result
of different materials absorbing or reflecting sunlight differently
to the camera in this spectum than in the visible spectum, so
having some good contrasts in the image helps greatly. The surface
reflection is really what makes a IR image pop, so go for something
which is hit by sunlight, and try for raking or edge light for
contrast.

So since what we are photographing is near Visible, becuase of that
think of the filter as LONG exposure, shooting with high ISO tends
to create some rather nosiy images. Strangely today everybody
expects noiseless images at 1600 iso, when I started we used HP5
for effect (read grain) at a wild 400-800 iso, and nobody expected
anything else. (smile) how the world have changed. So for great
images with a IR filter, lets start with long exposure times. If
you have a cable release that is a great thing, otherwise start
with the self-timer.

OK time to take a picture to get out of the pitts.!

Pull out a small tripod or bean bag , set it up for a landscape,
use ISO 50 and apperature f8. you can shoot out of your window -
but if the weather do not let you out, then there is also not much
IR contrast outside. - Try to get 90 degrees to the sun, get some
highlights on the ground and some in the sky, a classical image is
for some reason light-houses with sun on the one side and wild
clouds, it have hot and cold areas which is what we are interested
in.

Camera on tripod, iso 50 , camera to A for apperature set it to 8
and bracketing, focus a smidge closer than the object area, put the
filter on and let it rib... shoot a range of pictures with the auto
bracketing and go look at them.

This should get you something pretty clean and working.

Yes you can use handheld, but start with using support and work
your way up.

Bo
Click to expand...
 
Pat said:
Well, I tried out IR on my G6 last fall but was not pleased with
the blotchiness in the skies on the resulting photos. I did not
come up with a good way to get rid of it until this weekend when I
had time to work on it. See the results below. This is my first
ever IR photo. Let me know what you think of it.

Is the G6 good for IR? Having never done this before, it's hard to
say. But I think it's hard. First off, you need a tripod. The
exposure on this shot was 1 second. Yes, it was at ISO 50, but
there was enough noise at that setting, so I can't imagine the
noise if I had shot at a higher ISO. And I'm not sure why there
was so much noise in the sky. At ISO 50 I expected to get much
cleaner results. I think there are probably much better cameras to
use for IR because they are more sensitive to that wavelength.

The post processing also wasn't easy. As I said, I couldn't find a
good way to get rid of the noise in the sky until this weekend, and
I almost gave up on this pic. But lots of post-processing is not
uncommon for colored IRs, so if you're willing to do it, you can
get decent results. There is still some large patches of
blotchiness in the sky and if anyone knows a good photoshop
technique to even out the area Id love to hear it. The blur tool
was ineffective on such large areas and cloning did not work.

I am looking forward to trying out more IR photography with the G6
this spring. Supposedly you get the best results with newer foliage
as it is more sensitive to IR rays, and this was shot at the end of
October.



--
Pat
Click to expand...
Hello,

I made a lot of IR-pictures with my G6 and G2 as well. It works well but you have to a little work in PhotoShop afterwards.

By making a picture set the whitebalance correct by using a graycard of something else. When you put the picture into PhotoShop make a black/white picture of it and after that you work with the sliders to change the histogram. Of course you should start with a good beginning by making the picture. Further more, if you send me your e-mail adress, I show you some IR-pictures and moreover, last month a friend of me and me, wrote an article in a Dutch photomagazine about how to make a good IR-picture in a simple way.
My e-mail is.
Greetings.

Loek.
 
This one is on my pbase trial account. I was under the impression you couldn't link photos from trial accounts but it shows up in the preview on my computer. If it doesn't on yours, let me know and I'll go ahead and pay the fee. I'm pretty sure pbase is where I want to set up a gallery, though I'm concerened with recent posts about their downtime.



--
Pat
Don Erway said:
I can't view it either Pat, and I'd love to see it.

For me, it appears as a 1x1 pixel image.

Thanks for trying!
Don

--
Don Erway
http://www.pbase.com/derway/kona_underwater_g2
Click to expand...
 
ANAYV,

You said it, the f stop generates much more depth of field with the smaller sensor, I simply suggested the smallest available number with the objective of getting a sharp chrisp image. (Smile)

WOW. your image is fantastic, (and just happens to illustrate my point about getting the sun on it.) I hope you have a print of this on your walls somewhere.!

Bo

http://www.bophoto.com/panos
 
loek, I would be interested to read your article as well as to see your gallery. My email address is available through my profile here.

Thanks.

--
Pat
loek said:
Hello,

I made a lot of IR-pictures with my G6 and G2 as well. It works
well but you have to a little work in PhotoShop afterwards.
By making a picture set the whitebalance correct by using a
graycard of something else. When you put the picture into PhotoShop
make a black/white picture of it and after that you work with the
sliders to change the histogram. Of course you should start with a
good beginning by making the picture. Further more, if you send me
your e-mail adress, I show you some IR-pictures and moreover, last
month a friend of me and me, wrote an article in a Dutch
photomagazine about how to make a good IR-picture in a simple way.
My e-mail is.
Greetings.

Loek.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, Bo. It took a lot of work and trial and error. So you couldn't see it either at first? I wonder why Tascha had no problems, and I could see it too, but most of you couldn't.

I guess some of those free photo hosting sites are unreliable. I think I'll stick to pbase in the future.

--
Pat
Bo Lorentzen said:
Pat, that just ROCKS..!

Bo

http://www.bophoto.com/panos
Click to expand...
 
Pat said:
Well, I tried out IR on my G6 last fall but was not pleased with
the blotchiness in the skies on the resulting photos. I did not
come up with a good way to get rid of it until this weekend when I
had time to work on it. See the results below. This is my first
ever IR photo. Let me know what you think of it.

Is the G6 good for IR? Having never done this before, it's hard to
say. But I think it's hard. First off, you need a tripod. The
exposure on this shot was 1 second. Yes, it was at ISO 50, but
there was enough noise at that setting, so I can't imagine the
noise if I had shot at a higher ISO. And I'm not sure why there
was so much noise in the sky. At ISO 50 I expected to get much
cleaner results. I think there are probably much better cameras to
use for IR because they are more sensitive to that wavelength.

The post processing also wasn't easy. As I said, I couldn't find a
good way to get rid of the noise in the sky until this weekend, and
I almost gave up on this pic. But lots of post-processing is not
uncommon for colored IRs, so if you're willing to do it, you can
get decent results. There is still some large patches of
blotchiness in the sky and if anyone knows a good photoshop
technique to even out the area Id love to hear it. The blur tool
was ineffective on such large areas and cloning did not work.

I am looking forward to trying out more IR photography with the G6
this spring. Supposedly you get the best results with newer foliage
as it is more sensitive to IR rays, and this was shot at the end of
October.



--
Pat
Click to expand...
Hello Pat,

So sorry but I can not find your e-mail adres

Greetings,

Loek.
 
I too don't seem to have a clue how to get IR with G6
Can you email me the info also?
Thanks
 
Hi Pat,

Now I can see it! Great image!

I have a question... Whenever I've done IR (using Hoya R72) with my G6, the image has no color except a coffee/tobacco warm monochrome.

Did you convert this image in ACR as an RGB and then use mixers, color balance, etc. to bring out color? If so, what did you do?

Thanx
David
 
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