Infrared Photography Buzz

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Book Review: Digital Infrared Photography - Photo Workshop

Here's something new and different for the Buzz. I found a book

dedicated to IR Photography, and decided to do a Book Review on it. The book is titled Digital Infrared Photography - Photo Workshop - develop your digital photography talent, and is authored by Deborah Sandidge. One thing I particularly like about this book is the way Deborah continuously urges the reader to develop good photographic skills while learning to photograph in Infrared. "Seeing" the photo, being creative, and scene composition are equally important in all photography, not just in conventional color photography. Talent needs to be encouraged and cultivated to produce good IR images. More about the book later, but first lets meet the author.

Bio: Deborah Sandidge. Photography has been part of award-winning professional photographer, author, and instructor, Deborah Sandidge's life since she picked up her first camera.

It has evolved into her passion. Deborah is the author of Digital Infrared Photography PhotoWorkshop, Wiley Publishing. She is an instructor at BetterPhoto.com, sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with infrared photographers in online classes. She is the cofounder and Creative Director of the League of Creative Infrared Photographers (www.irleague.com), which was established to promote the excitement, and creativity of infrared photography.

Deborah’s favorite photography subjects include Florida’s birds and wildlife, as well as its landscapes. Her travels have not been limited to Florida’s fascinating beauty; they have taken her from border to border of America and beyond to yield photography that stretches the imagination. She has had the joy and privilege of photographing areas ranging from Namibia, Africa, with its stunning dunes, primitive tribal villages, beautiful people, and sweeping coastlines, to the cities and towns of Switzerland, Germany, and France with their rich history, majestic mountains, tiny churches, soaring cathedrals, and captivating night scenes. Recently, Deborah traveled to Cuba, a photographer’s dream location.

Deborah’s passion is not only capturing images of people, places, and things with her digital cameras, but also in the enhancing the creative work she does in the digital darkroom.

Deborah's Web Site

In this Book, Deborah really covers all of the bases, giving anyone just starting a good foundation in photography as well as the nuts and bolts of Infrared Photography. I think you can get an idea of what to expect from the following list of book chapters.

Chapter 1: What Exactly Is IR Light. An easy to understand discussion on the properties of light and where IR lies in the spectrum. Also the use of IR Filters, and IR-converted Cameras.

Chapter 2: Visualizing and Capturing IR Images. RAW and JPG, Setting White Balance, Exposure, Using Flash, and many more relevant topics.

Chapter 3: Essentials of IR Composition. Composition elements related to IR results, Lens Choice, and Personal IR Style.

Chapter 4: Capturing Specific Subjects. Architecture. Landscapes, People, and other subjects.

Chapter 5: Special Effects for Creative In-Camera Images. Long Exposures, Reflections, Textures, Zooming, Overlays, Filters, and Painting with Light.

Chapter 6: Planning Ahead for High Dynamic Range and Photomerge. HDR is a good tool for creative IR images. Software, Shooting for HDR, Post Processing, and even Panoramas.

Chapter 7: Processing IR Images in Photoshop. Always a subject that generates many questions. Many good Post Processing techniques explained in detail.

Chapter 8: Working Creatively in Photoshop. Ideas for using the power of Photoshop to take your IR images in new and tasteful directions.

Chapter 9: Transform Color to IR Effect in Photoshop. Not always appreciated fully by the IR purist, but a number of ways are explained if you want to know how to do it.

Chapter 10: Be Inspired. Deborah wisely includes the work of nine well known and respected IR Photographers to provide creative inspiration.

Appendix: A:

Glossary - A comprehensive list of terms encountered by the IR Photographer.

Resources - An equally comprehensive listing of Resources of interest to the IR Photographer, including contact information and URL Links. Included are:

IR Filters
Camera Conversion Companies
Image Editing Software
Noise Reduction Software
HDR Software and Plug-ins
Photoshop Plug-ins
Other Assessories
Photographers
Magazines
Online Communities
Events

Summary: This book is profusely illustrated, with many excellent images. Each image is annotated to provide an example or an explaination of the subject being discussed. At the end of chapters, an Assignment challenge is given to encourage hands-on experience using the knowledge imparted in the chapter. An online link is provided to share your own newly learned results. The book does an admirable job of informing any photographer just getting started in IR, as well as providing very good topical information to those with greater levels of IR Photography experience.

And Finally, the book is available for purchase on Amazon.com

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Featured IR Photographer Showcase - Ronald Suello

Hello again IR Shooters. It's been quite awhile since I've had anyone contact me to have their work Showcased on the IR Buzz. I'm very pleased that talented IR Photographer, Ronald Suello sent me an email offering to let us all see his fine IR work. Ronnie lives in Cebu, Philippines, and it is very apparent that he has some first-rate IR scenes to choose from. He does a very good job of capturing these scenes from his world in Infrared. Ronnie, (as he will tell you in his Bio.,) uses two Nikon cameras (un-modded) for his IR work. Welcome to the IR Buzz Ronald Suello!

Bio: I live here in Cebu, Philippines and I work in the automotive electronics industry. I'm married and our first child will be coming very soon this summer. I started messing around with photography since 1990 using my

father's camera, but because of film processing inconveniences, I forgot all about it. Also, it didn't help that my first film camera was stolen back in 1998. In 2002, I bought my first digital camera, a 2-megapixel FujiFilm 2600Z. Since then, shooting never stops, especially landscapes and events.

When digital SLRs became affordable, I got myself a Nikon D40 back in 2006. Looking at online galleries, I noticed that images from infrared photography are very magnetic and unique. Images that are truly unseen by the naked eye. I fell in love with it! So in summer of 2007, I started shooting landscapes in infrared and never looked back since then.

Tips: Any place is good for infrared photography as long as it has plenty of sunshine. Here in Cebu, the rural countryside offers lots of interesting subjects. Bits of cloud are desirable to avoid negative space in the skies, and I always keep an eye on old trees, bodies of water, interesting structures, and shadow direction. In the field, pre-visualization is very important - you may find a good subject or interesting composition but once the image is post-processed, you may be disappointed by the effects of the previously unseen infrared reflections. Sometimes, these reflections can be overwhelming and thus ruin your image. So "chimping" (reviewing your shots on the LCD as you take them) is encouraged in this type of photography. Don't forget the histogram. It can be your best friend.

Infrared Equipment and Post-Processing Work Flow: Most of my IR images were made using Hoya R72 IR filters with the Nikkor 18-55 kit lens. Lately, I have been using an ultrawide-angle lens - the Tokina 11-16. If I need a fast shutter speed, I use a Nikon D40 body, and if I need to capture sense of movement or longer shutter speed, I use a Nikon D90. Perhaps someday, instead of just using Hoya R72 filters, I'll be using a converted camera. I always shoot in RAW. Inside Photoshop, my "bread and butter" steps are red-blue swap in the channel mixer layer and color shifts in the color balance layer. I always aim for white leaves and blue skies but composition is still the key.

Other interests: If you check out my Flickr page, you may notice that I love almost all genres of photography. I call myself a "weekend shooter". so I just try to take advantage of what's in front of me. Aside from photography, I'm also into video gaming and fiction novels.

Some of my favorite IR shots:

Ronald's IR Gallery

Copyright Statement: All images and materials displayed and showcased here, are copyrighted and are the exclusive property of the artist. Images and material may not be reproduced or used in any way without the written consent of the artist.

Please Comment Freely to this Post.

Let Ronald know how much you enjoy and appreciate his wonderful IR Photography!

-=- Jerry -=-

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Featured IR Photographer Showcase - Desert Rat

Hello IR Lovers! Once again we travel half-way around the globe from our previous destination. This time to sunny Southern California. With the consistant sunny climate in the mild deserts where Los Angeles is located, it just has to be an IR Paradise. Well, as we will see, every place has it's admirers, and those who find other locals more suitable. Our Featured Photographer, shows us how IR-Friendly the sunny Southwestern part of the United States can be. Here's a photographer we can appreciate for his selection of tools to do the job. A shooter of high end Nikon DSLR models, he shows us how it's done with a modded Canon Powershot Pro 1. Proof positive that a DSLR is not a requirement when it comes to IR.

BIO: Hi. I live in Los Angeles, CA, a city that is a veritable concrete jungle. Since it is a metropolitan city made up of intertwining, sprawling suburban neighborhoods, it can be difficult to find good places for my favorite photography subjects—landscapes

and wildlife. When I do venture out on a photographic adventure, I prefer places that offer the peace and solitude seldom found in and around LA. Currently, I have a Nikon D2X that I use as my workhorse camera, a Nikon D300 as a backup camera, and I converted the Canon POWERSHOT Pro 1 as my dedicated IR camera.

Photography has been my BIG hobby for most of my life. I grew up in Michigan where my father was a professional wedding photographer. I would often assist him on weekends and that’s when my appreciation for photography began. I followed my folks to Phoenix, AZ where I studied biology at Arizona State University. Afterward, I studied electron microscopy at Cal State University Fullerton in CA. I fell in love with the rich photographic possibilities I found in the American Southwest. The desert offers a plentitude of natural beauty everywhere you look, from wildflowers to monsoonal thunderstorms to candy-striped rock formations.

I shot mostly slide film for years, before taking up the digital photography banner. I was using the Nikon F5 while on a photography trip to Page, AZ with some friends in 2004. One friend had easily embraced the age of digital photography and enjoyed it so much that he brought two digital cameras with him on the trip and gave me his backup camera Nikon D70 to play with, I mean, test. I was instantly captivated with the way it handled. It was exciting to be able to quickly view recently shot photographs and make adjustments to the compositions immediately. I don’t have space for a darkroom, so it was always challenging to take pictures and wait several weeks until the processed slides returned before I knew whether my efforts were note-worthy. With digital photography, if the images were not what I had intended, I could delete them many times over without thinking twice about film or processing cost! Not something I could have done when I was shooting with film.

Outside of my affection for wide scenic landscapes, wildlife, macro and aviation photography, I was looking for new pictorial ideas. My girlfriend suggested looking into infrared photography. I found that I could use the Hoya R72 filter and adjustments to the white balance on a DSLR to convert an image to IR. All of a sudden, another new world of photography became fascinating. Simply the way grass blades and trees glow with that bright white yet soft light, the way lakes and ponds transform into stark black mirrors, the way the sky becomes this sharp, dark counterpoint to a landscape is to appreciate Mother Nature’s grandeur on a higher level. The overall composition goes from just a good color image to a magical, ethereal one—an entirely new photograph altogether! That sealed it. I bought a Canon P&S based on recommendations and had it converted to a dedicated IR camera, and the rest, as they say, is history!

I am honored to have been invited to share my photos on this website. I hope you enjoy my work, and can appreciate how fascinating this medium can be. I welcome all comments.

Here are a few of my Favorite IR Photographs from my Gallery.

Here's A Link to My IR Galleries

Please Comment Freely to this Post.

Let the Artist know how much you enjoy and appreciate his inpressive IR Photography!

-=- Jerry -=-

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Featured IR Photographer Showcase - Ruel Tafalla

This time the Feature is on IR Photographer Ruel Tafalla who brings us stunningly colored IR images from his current home in Florida, as well as the Philippines, and various countries in and around Indonesia. Ruel currently shoots with a modified Canon 30D, and various filters. Quoting from his pbase gallery, "using a modified Canon Camera, with this modification, I can shoot Infrared like images at faster shutter speeds compared to using IR filters mounted on the lens which needs a tripod due to it's slow shutter speed. The camera is modified to shoot 30% IR + 40% Visible light + 30% UV. The result are very saturated yellow leaves, blue skies and 80% normal skin tone". And, "the photos that have a brown tint or almost BW IR, a red filter is used, Shutter speed is still fast enough for hand held shots" . Please welcome Ruel Tafalla.

Bio: I live in South Florida for almost 9 months now. I have been shooting Infrared for almost a year. I am using a canon 30d modified to shoot infrared only. I like shooting landscapes in IR and in Color. I have been doing this hobby since 2001. I learned Photography in Indonesia in which I lived for 10 yrs. I learned photography by reading books from

John Shaw. I got hooked in Infrared when I saw my good friend Kristupa Saragih shooting infrared. (Kristupa Saragih is the founder of the biggest Indonesian Photography Community "Fotografer.net") I was mesmerized with the images he produced, the rest is history. I like to shoot infrared Landscapes that have bodies of water. It gives a nice overall effect on the image specially if the there is a reflection of the landscape itself in the water. My Favorite place to shoot Infrared here is Morikami Japanese Garden, GreenCay Wetlands and Boynton Inlet. One of the biggest thing that happen to me this year is winning the Palm Beach Post Focus on Nature Contest, in which I won the First Place on the Oceans Category (non IR) and getting featured in Photography Magazines (3x) for my Infrared Photos.