A taste of Japan, in IR & slow shutter (6 imgs)

Well, my first weekend playing with the new ND400 filter on my 717! I decided to try a mix of daytime slow shutter stuff, to get that deep saturation and smooth water, and some IR to see how the ND400 pans out. What better than gorgeous Japanese gardens?

I'm a first-timer with IR photography, other than 2 sample shots the day I got the filter and some old attempts in my backyard with a floppy disk. So I'd love any comments or constructive criticism on shooting IR, post-processing, and the shots themselves.

1. Bridges and water:



For post-processing, I did a green desaturation, boosted contrast, and adjusted levels, then layered a non-IR color shot over it with 25% opacity, for a semi-color IR effect.

2. Trees:



For this one, I tried the blue/green color swap method, with a contrast, clarify, and levels adjustment for a more contrasty, B&W feel.

3. Here's a daytime slow shutter shot...Waterfall:



Shot with ND400, at F5.6 and 2 second shutter, ISO 100.

4. The Bridge:



This was a green desaturation, then master Sat 50 and hue 130. Contrast boosted to 30, then three runs of Clarify filter in PSP8.

5. Bird:



Strange diving bird (some form of cormorant, maybe?) sitting on a rock. Shot at 3x telephoto. Same post-processing as in #4, without as much contrast.

6. Stream:



This was more of a red-favored post-processing, with green desaturation, then master hue to I think -60 or so (can't remember now!). I was playing around with the hue/saturation controllers trying to find out the various effects.

Any advice or comments? There are plenty more in the gallery of shots from this day...Here's the link to the gallery with a total of 42 shots:

http://www.funtigo.com/zackiedawg?b=241693&p=1.0&n=1

Please take a look. I may post other shots from the gallery in separate threads for other reasons, but would be happy to receive any comments or criticisms on other shots in the album too.

BTW - All shots taken with 717 and ND400 filter. Some other shots in the gallery included ND8 filter stacked. All shots taken with tripod attached, but occasionally handheld and compacted. Slow shutter shots used assistance of Sony wired remote shutter release.

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Justin

very good! i like the sense of japan
i could feel it
i wish i could take some shot like that
haven't been to any good places yet
i also use 717
wut do u mean by IR? thx

water and the bird shots r realy nice
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zackiedawg said:

Well, my first weekend playing with the new ND400 filter on my 717!
I decided to try a mix of daytime slow shutter stuff, to get that
deep saturation and smooth water, and some IR to see how the ND400
pans out. What better than gorgeous Japanese gardens?

Click to expand...

What a jump forward you've made - this is a very scenic location and it looks like you had great weather for shooting IR as well. I like how the images have turned out, you have a wide variety of processing options here you've gone through, and can see how different processing works best for different images.

Very cool results, keep 'em coming.

Frank..

Quite inspiring and makes me want to get off my lazy ass and start shooting more. I have an nd400 IR72 n8 nd4 for my 828 and when the leaves a start growin I will be a shootin here in NY.

I love the color of the fence on the first one and the water fall too. I wonder how 1 sec would have looked compared to 2 sec with the water fall? Sometimes with nd's less time shows more I would think? Depending on speed of subject.

You shot some nice stuff that day. Keep it up. It beats putting a floppy in front of your lens that some nice guy sent you a while back.

I am looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Joe

I love this one and the color one too

Thanks for the comments. As you may have found out, IR means Infra-Red. It is a type of photography in which you block the visible light spectrum to your camera to capture only the infra-red light. Some Sony cameras are especially capable of this type of photography with minimal preparations because of the Nightshot mode which is IR. However during the day, the Nightshot mode is far too sensitive to visible light too...so filters like the Hoya R72 or the ND400 are designed to block most or all of the visible light to shoot in Nightshot mode.

Plants are especially reflective of IR light, and usually show up as a bright white, while skies and waters which usually do not have IR properties show up darker or black.

Thanks for the comments and questions!

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Justin

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Justin

Thank you very much. It is a nice location, fortunately close to home too. I hadn't been willing to go to parks and gardens and pay money to shoot locations like this with a floppy disk...but the floppy disk experiments gave me some ideas of what to look for, how the shots come out, and differences in processing.

The post-processing options are definately vast...though I can't honestly figure out if one is the best way to go. I see others in here seem to get some deeper-colored skies and slightly more contrast than I can seem to get, but I can't figure if that has something to do with the way I'm shooting, the ND400 filter, or Florida (does temperature have an affect on IR properties? Maybe our hot temps and high humidity make our skies more prone to refract and bounce IR light, so we can't get that dark look?).

I'm actually very pleased with the expanded possibilities now. I did not buy the ND400 with any intentions to use it as a predominantly IR filter...I really just wanted the slow-shutter daytime capabilities. I knew it was supposed to be capable of IR, but I figured it would be mediocre at best. It is actually pretty darned good! I'm just slapping it on and shooting in Nightshot and Program mode with its two paltry shutter speeds, and getting pretty nice results.

Thank you kindly for the comments. I definately look forward to playing with this filter more.

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Justin

joeg5150 said:

Quite inspiring and makes me want to get off my lazy ass and start
shooting more. I have an nd400 IR72 n8 nd4 for my 828 and when the
leaves a start growin I will be a shootin here in NY.

Click to expand...

You sound much more prepared in the way of filters than I am! Big selection you've got there. In fact, maybe you can answer me a question: What differences do you notice in the properties of IR shots taken with the R72 vs the ND400? Can you use the R72 without nightshot mode, using long exposures too? Main differences I'm curious about are whether the colors, skies, brightness, contrast, etc are different between these two filters.

joeg5150 said:

I love the color of the fence on the first one and the water fall
too. I wonder how 1 sec would have looked compared to 2 sec with
the water fall? Sometimes with nd's less time shows more I would
think? Depending on speed of subject.

Click to expand...

I think I actually shot that waterfall 4 times...at varying shutter speeds to check the differences. It was a slow-moving waterfall...so the shorter shutter speed showed similar flow over the rock, but less splash silking around the rock at the bottom. Not a huge difference. I picked the one I thought I liked the best for uploading...but who knows - I may look at them and pick a different one every other day! I took 160 shots that day...surprisingly no real duds. Just alot of duplicates to allow me room to play with aperatures and shutter speeds, adding additional NDs and polarizers, etc. I picked 42 of them to upload to my gallery - most of those I left out are just duplicates or triplicates of the same scenes.

If you get the chance (or haven't already), glance at the gallery and if something strikes you as good or bad, let me know.

joeg5150 said:

You shot some nice stuff that day. Keep it up. It beats putting a
floppy in front of your lens that some nice guy sent you a while
back.

Click to expand...

yeah...I can't remember who that was that sent me those. But it was definately the catalyst that got me into IR photography. So I'll have to thank that guy if I ever figure out who it is!

joeg5150 said:

I love this one and the color one too

Click to expand...

The color one was an experiment with about 12 doses of hue adjustments. On the large sized one, the pinks on the boards are noticeably spotty, but downsized, the colors came off kind of funky...and I liked it. It was a cool Bonsai tree of an Australian pine (they have lots of Bonsais on display there, next to a huge koi lake).

Thanks for the comments! (and the floppies).

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Justin

Yes, It was me who sent you those floppies. I started that way too.

IMO I think there is more contrast in the IR72 because the leaves look whiter and the skies etc may look darker because of less color allowed through on R72. The color that does come through is not a bad thing in some respects. 828 and 717 may differ as well in other aspects.

I have seen your gallery and It looks like a great place to shoot. You have done some nice work there.

I wouldn't worry too much about post processing yet. I would concentrate on using your nd400 and maybe exploiting your ND400/717 IR color capabilities you have there. I think you have great potential with that setup and motivation Justin.

Joe

thank you so much justin
so i should get nd400 or either r75 then amount -> shoot in night mode?
thank you so much

This is just my subjective opinion...but I went through the same thoughts of maybe buying the R72 filter, and decided to go with the ND400.

Here's my thinking: With the R72 and at least an ND8 and ND4 filter stacked on top, you can probably get untimately more contrasted IR shots. But of course you can stack a few extra NDs on the ND400 too to block even more visible light, and probably get fairly good results.

However, the ND400 is good for other purposes aside from IR, and that's what sold me on it. I wanted to take daytime slow shutter shots - but stopped down to F8 and with an ND8 filter, the longest shutter I could use in broad daylight was maybe 1/60 or so...not very slow. I wanted to be able to leave my shutter open for seconds, so I could get those motion effects of streaking cars, or have people and other moving objects cutting through my shot to basically disappear. And when shooting moving water, it's nice to be able to use a longer exposure to get that smooth silky look.

Because it is reasonably priced, and you are not yet a fanatical IR photobug...the ND400 may be the perfect flexible filter to let you learn about IR shooting, and at the same time use it for solar shots and long shutter exposures. As you get used to it, you can buy an ND8 filter, which will allow even less light through when stacked on top of the ND400.

Let us know what you decide, and we'll look forward to seeing your first ND400 attempts too!

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Justin

I like your posting style, Justin, and you make it easy to share your learning process.

The images are interesting and bring us the peace and calm of nature, with the IR twist.

The second image is broken up into classical thirds with a beautiful reflection in the water, a cartoon sky and the IR foliage in the middle. I think it's a perfect background. It needs a subject, (or just a point of interest), and maybe a little mist to make it unforgetable. (Just a creative penny I tossed into your fountain).
John Dunn

thank you so much for explanation
it was really easy to understand
wel... what brand should i get
i have hoya uv and it costs about 13bux
does brand going to any change in photo qualities?
Justin, i have much things to learn
What's the pro for IR shooing? any con at all?
how did u shoot picture like first one?
everything is blacked out except bridge and person with redish color
that's what i wanted to do all the time

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My family photo gallery: http://panekfamily.net

mikethemic said:

wel... what brand should i get
i have hoya uv and it costs about 13bux
does brand going to any change in photo qualities?

Click to expand...

I have the Hoya ND400 myself. I don't know if other manufacturers make an 8-10 stop ND filter. But you'll be fine sticking to good filter names like Hoya, Tiffen, Cokin, Sunpak. In general, filters from these companies should be decent for most photographic purposes without any quality issues. Sure, a cheaper filter may lack coatings which can leave it vulnerable to flare, scratches, and fading.

mikethemic said:

What's the pro for IR shooing? any con at all?

Click to expand...

Not really pros and cons...just a different type of photography. Daytime IR photography is really only effective in good sunlight...you can shoot it anytime, but bright sun gives those great whites in the trees and lots of contrast to play with. It is sort of a negative B&W...things like green trees show up white, while light blue skies show up dark.

mikethemic said:

how did u shoot picture like first one?
everything is blacked out except bridge and person with redish color
that's what i wanted to do all the time

Click to expand...

That was a layered shot. I took two pictures...one in IR, and one in standard color. I processed the IR shot to get rid of the green and boosted the contrast, then layered the color shot over it, and moved the color layer visibility down to 25%. That left just a hint of the color in everything. Then with the eraser brush, I erased the green from the trees so the white would show through.

Hope that helps!

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Justin

This is the type of thing I remember about STF that makes me really enjoy it here, despite any bickering or arguing that occasionally gets up. Basically, it is still a good place with friendly people willing to help out with a comment, advice, info, critique, and even sticking things in the mail for free!

You are a shining example of what is great about STF. I cut those floppies up into shapes which basically fit the 717 lens...but if anyone else wanted to try the floppy stuff, and asked for a larger one, I will definately pay it forward!

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Justin

I would love some mist in there. Maybe I can play around with the ol' editing software to see if I can drum up anything believable. We don't get much fog or mist here in Florida, so it isn't something I can photograph naturally and blend in. But there are 'fog' effects in PSP and PS, so maybe I'll give them a go.

Thanks for the comments and support.

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Justin

1. 3 and #5 do it for me, I keep going back to look at those. Not that the others aren't good, do you know what I mean? Very nice.

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AJ

Just fantastic photos, Justin (sorry for pun)!
I like all of them , but the 3d is my favourite!
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