Infrared Photography Tutorial

In this article I will disclose my technique of post-processing infrared images.

Rivers, lakes and trees are great spots for infrared images. Fortunately, there's a river flowing right through our village, so I don't have to walk too far to find a place like this:




The clouds and their reflections on the water looked perfect to me, so I put my camera (a Sony Alpha) on the tripod, screwed the Hoya R72 IR filter on the lens and shot away.

Tip: Due to the long exposure time, you should use a remote control or the self-timer to avoid vibrations. For best results, wait until there is no wind and the leaves on the trees are not moving.

I experienced that a white balance of 2500K G9 works best for my camera but different camera models might require different settings. Since the Hoya R72 IR filter is almost black it always takes some time to get a sharp image with the auto focus. Once the focus is good enough I set the camera to manual focus (to "lock" the focus) and shot several images with different exposures in RAW mode. Thus I can choose the best exposure later because the display of the camera might not show the brightness accurately. Moreover, many different exposures allow me to create an HDR image if desired.

When I was back home I chose this image for post-production:




The exposure seemed just right; nothing is over- or underexposed. I imported the RAW file to Photoshop without adjusting anything at first.

Then I cropped the image at the bottom to get a width/height ratio of about 1.6:1, which equals roughly the golden mean and is more eye-pleasing:




After that I had Photoshop adjust the levels automatically by pressing Shift+Ctrl+L:




Then I used the channel mixer (Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer) to get a blue hue. I chose "Red" as the output channel and moved the source channel slider of red to 0% and the slider of blue to 100%. Then I chose "Blue" from the output channel menu and slided red to 100% and blue to 0%. Afterwards the image looked like this:




Now that doesn't look too bad, does it? But still there's a lot to be done. I found the saturation a bit too much so I decreased it with the PowerRetouche Saturation plug-in (setting -90/photographic):




In order to increase the contrast by making the trees a bit whiter (they still have a magenta hue) and the sky darker I applied a red filter with the PowerRetouche Studio Black and White plug-in. The result looks like this:




Alternatively, you can experiment with the Photoshop photo filters (Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter).

However, there's still too much magenta in the trees. So I set the saturation (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation) of magentas to -75, of reds to -70 and of blues to -50 in order to make them look more natural:




For the last step I used the dodge tool (O) and set a few highlights on the trees to make them look more plastic and whiter. With the elliptic marquee tool (feather: 100 pixels) I selected some trees to increase the contrast and to bring out the branches more. Before submitting the image to deviantART I resized it, sharpened it, and added a border so that it looks good on a computer screen.




You can view the final version here:




Wallpapers:

1280x1024:


1024x768:



I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me. Another IR tutorial can be found here: http://www.glossyart.com/blog/2008/07/taking-and-processing-infrared-photos.html

6 Steps to Better Photos

1. Zoom in. Do not include unnecessary surroundings that distract the viewer from the main object. By using a longer focal length you can also reduce the depth of field (DoF) and blur the background, thus making the object more outstanding. An open aperture (small f-number) and/or short distance to the object also cause a narrow DoF.

2. Apply the rule of thirds/the Golden Mean. Do not place your main object right in the middle of the image unless you want your image to look static or symmetrical. Divide the image into thirds and place your subject where the lines cross to make it more dynamic. Example:


Source: photoshopnerds.com


3. Make sure the horizon is really a horizontal line. If you do not have a good reason to break this rule, a (landscape) shot with a crooked horizon will always make your photo look like a snapshot. So, take that extra second to align your camera or fix the crooked horizon with Photoshop.

4. Use the self-timer more often. Even if you take a picture with a tripod, your photo can sometimes be blurry because of the vibration when the shutter button is pressed. To avoid this, you could use a remote control or simply use the self-timer. Pro-tip for (D)SLR users: Enable mirror lock-up before the shot to eliminate vibration completely. If your shot is still blurry, just wait until the wind is gone.

5. "Orbit" your object. Just like an electron orbits an atomic nucleus you have to orbit your object and explore different perspectives. It's a simple equation: The more original the perspective, the more interesting your photo. This one goes hand in hand with step...

...6. Be creative. Do not take the same shot that hundreds of people took before you (recent trends seem to be people jumping on the beach or someone in a field with red balloons). If you just copy another image your own image does not have any impact anymore.

Scam: Picture.com and Poetry.com

_{Extract: Do not buy a photo book by the International Library of Photography if you get a letter from them. All the others can disregard this article because you won't find the book in bookstores anyway lol.}

Since picture.com seems to be very popular for their contests I think a lot of people are affected by their unfair practices. Here's my story:

I received a letter from picture.com saying that the image I submitted for their photo contest has been selected as a semi-final winner and will proceed to the finals. Sounds good so far, doesn't it? But it comes even better: The letter also read that I could get my image published in a coffee-table photo book if I just sign the artist's proof and send it back to the picture.com office. And here is where the scam begins.

According to the letter the book's working title was "Endless Journeys" and would probably be published in Winter 2008. They even provided the ISBN and a brochure about the book. The price of the book would be $89.95 but I could get a discount of $20 if I pre-ordered it. Now that sounds a bit fishy because usually if you contribute to a book you will get paid and also get free samples of the book--but in this case it seems to be the other way round. Also, the price for the book is quite high.

So I searched for the ISBN on Amazon but couldn't find it. Instead I found a number of forum threads dealing with the same topic, and it seems the publisher ("International Library of Photography") will only publish the book if there are enough pre-orders. What they do is called "vanity publishing". That means the book will never be sold to the public but only to the contributors themselves. So what you pay for is a book with an uncertain delivery date, uncertain title, no public audience, and with a large number of small low-quality images per page at a ridiculous price. The equation is simple: They include a large number of images to get a large number of orders from naive artists, and they use the photo contests on their website picture.com as a decoy.

More scam: They sent me an e-mail offering a medal and a certificate but I would have to pay for it--since when do you actually have to pay for an award?

By the way, did you know that the contact address at poetry.com is the same as the one at picture.com? Same scam, different website.

New Wallpaper: "Incoming"

I've been overwhelmed by the huge amount of views and faves this wallpaper has received at deviantART since I uploaded it two weeks ago. "Incoming" was taken from the 29th floor of the TPI Tower in Bangkok two weeks ago and portrays the skyline of South-East Asia's top metropolis at dusk. At this particular time the cloud formation was quite impressive, however with Photoshop I was able to make the colors even more dramatic. The key was the level auto-adjustment feature. With the elliptic marquee tool (feather setting: 50px) I selected a small part of the sky (maybe 1/6) and auto-adjusted the levels by pressing Ctrl+L. This procedure was repeated on the other parts of the sky until I got the final result (and it required a lot of trial-and-error). Power Retouche contrast and black definition plug-ins rounded up the color enhancement, while the Noise Ninja plug-in kicked some noisy ass and sharpened the image. Feel free to download the wallpaper at http://nxxos.deviantart.com/art/Incoming-88646651.

Are you a REAL Photoshop Whore?

1. You go to the department store to buy new brushes because you've downloaded all the brushes from the Internet already.

2. At school, you ask if you can have that sponge tool real quick.

3. Actually, everything is a tool for you, like an eat-tool, clock tool, sleep tool, drive tool, think tool and so on. And of course, beer is your favorite blur tool.

4. You see a woman and you don't like her make-up. You think "damn she really should adjust the color settings."

5. You just can't stick to ONE Photoshop version. You use CS2 for photo manipulating, CS for painting and the old 6.0 for other purposes because it's still the best.

6. You can draw a perfectly photorealistic picture with only the pen tool (4 p--now that's what I call an alliteration :P).

7. Your number one pickup line: "Let's merge two layers."

8. Number two: "Wanna check out my new hand tool settings?"

9. You use Clearasil to "reduce the noise" on your skin.

10. You actually bought a legal copy of the program.

11. You have to vomit when you hear someone say "Corel". Now I just hope you didn't puke on your keyboard.

12. You know what ImageReady is for.

13. You wrote all the how-to tips.

14. In fact, whenever Adobe can't answer a question from a customer, they will ask you.

15. You're pissed because in Math you don't learn the calculations you really need.

16. Your eyes see the world in CMYK mode.

17. And your brain can add some filters if necessary.

18. You clear the history and wonder why your ex is still there.

19. You use a projector, because that's the only way to see your print in full view.

20. Your daughter's name is Adobe.

21. You'll probably never read this article because you're too busy with Photoshop.

Models Wanted

We are currently looking for models in order to expand our portfolio. It doesn't matter if you've just started your modeling career or if you're an experienced model already. If you're over 18, live in the Bangkok metropolitan area and like to pose please feel free to send us an e-mail. You can contact us in English, Thai, or German (although English is our preferred language).

Right now we're planning a shoot at a swimming pool (bikini, no nude) in Ratburana near the Kasikorn Bank Head Office Building, however please do not hesitate to tell us if you have some other ideas in your mind.

The photo shoot will be on a TFCD (time for image CD) basis. That means neither you as the model nor us as the photographers will take any money--instead, you "pay" us with your time and we "pay" you with our photos on CD/DVD. All details (such as the amount of images that you'll get) will be written in a contract/model release. You should bring your own clothes but you do not have to bring any make-up as we will have a make-up artist at the set.

Of course, if you want you can bring an accompanying person with you.

If you have any further questions please send us an e-mail or call us at +66847337137 (English) or +66816487702 (Thai/English).

Dark Clouds over Thailand

Dark clouds are over the Thai government building as the siege continues (more info and images here: [link] ). Last Friday, the PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy) and their supporters have successfully broken through the police lines and are now peacefully camping right in front of the fence of the compound. Thai Prime Minister Samak does not really seem to be willing to interfere. The policemen are now standing behind the fence guarding the last barricade between the people and the government building. The main stage, which is just 10 meters away from the fence, has now a roof--a sign that the siege is likely to continue for a longer time. However, the PM is still able to go in and out of the government building. Nevertheless, the situation is like a stalemate. The PM says he doesn't want to resign and the protesters want to remain peaceful. Both parties are too stubborn and I don't get the impression that anyone wants to do something constructive. In the meantime, at least the food and bandana sellers are having a great time.



Policemen are taking some rest and get crazy after seeing my camera.


Exhausted protesters and their tents.


Figures depicting former PM Thaksin, PM Samak and some other politician.


With the f-word covered by another poster, this banner becomes kinda funny...


The main stage gets a roof--looks like the protesters want to stay a while here.


A policeman guarding the government house.

Exhibition: Press Photo in Focus

Until July 6th an exhibition titled "Press Photo in Focus" will be open at the Zen Event Gallery, 8th floor CentralWorld shopping mall, Bangkok.

It will feature all winning images from the World Press Photo Awards and other works that rocked the world of press photography. It will be rounded up by various workshops.

Official website: http://www.pressphotoinfocus.com/

Check out the world press photo winner gallery online: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/