California Coast in IR

aktse · January 16, 2008

I had the pleasure of having Skippy stay with me for a few days after the Glacier Shootout. We started the day early in Monterey and closed it out with a sunset at the Golden Gate.

1. Monterey Bay Aquarium

2. Bird Rock -- it's white due to the poop!

3. Coastline with Cypress

4. Shadows near the Golden Gate

5. Ropes

6. Not an ordinary bridge

C&C welcomed. Thanks for looking....

Andy · January 17, 2008

aktse wrote:

6. Not an ordinary bridge

MMMMmmmm tasty

Giphsub · January 17, 2008

Great shot!

Skippy · January 17, 2008

aktse wrote:

I had the pleasure of having Skippy stay with me for a few days after the Glacier Shootout. We started the day early in Monterey and closed it out with a sunset at the Golden Gate.

1. Monterey Bay Aquarium
2. Bird Rock -- it's white due to the poop!
3. Coastline with Cypress
4. Shadows near the Golden Gate
5. Ropes
6. Not an ordinary bridge
C&C welcomed. Thanks for looking....

Glad I'm not the only one who takes forever to process stuff

Montery Bay Aquarium was just amazing, having never been in this area before, I was totally blown away by the Jelly Fish display they have.

The Golden Gate Bridge is a place I will never forget, having walked over it,
driven over it, ridden a bicycle over it..... I think I've run out ways of crossing it

The sight from the Bridge looking back at the San Francisco is just amazing.

We had a great time, man we crammed in so much in those few days didn't we.

Next time April I will have an IR camera too

Thanks for the memories and thank you for taking me at such short notice.
.... Skippy

.

schmoo · January 17, 2008

I love this one! You do some of the best IRs I've seen, but this one take the cake.

tsk1979 · January 18, 2008

Do you use a modified camera, or take a long exposure shot with an IR filter plonked

Scott_Quier · January 18, 2008

The color effects in 2 and 3 are neat - This looks like it's SOOC with no color modification work done to them. Am I right?

The last one of the bridge is very cool. Did you do anything special to this one?

aktse · January 18, 2008

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

schmoo wrote:

I love this one! You do some of the best IRs I've seen, but this one take the cake.

<blush> I think if you had an IR body in your hands, you would do just as well.

tsk1979 wrote:

Do you use a modified camera, or take a long exposure shot with an IR filter plonked

I use a modify xt body that got from maxmax. I was about to go the used body path, but it turned out to be the same price for me. It was an impulse buy and I always figured that I could find a buyer for it on dgrin, but after the first few shots, I was hooked. In general, I shoot less IR than with my standard body, but I have a higher percentage of keeps and have learned that natural elements, shadows and clouds work very well.

And let me know if you're ever back in the area for work.

Scott_Quier wrote:

The color effects in 2 and 3 are neat - This looks like it's SOOC with no color modification work done to them. Am I right?

The last one of the bridge is very cool. Did you do anything special to this one?

Actually, 2, 3, 4 are almost SOOC and they're decent SOOC, but I used autolevel for them. #1 and #5 were autoleveled and ran it through one of the auto B&W conversions in PS.

And I have to make a confession about the golden gate bridge photo (which I should have stated earlier). The post work is done by a friend. Originally, it looked like #2, #3, #4. And I posted it on flickr that way and I was about to send him the file to work on it since I thought it needed some POP to it. To my surprise, my friend saw it, grabbed the jpeg without me asking, and made a few adjustments since he loved the composition. I'll post the details once he gives me his secrets, but it isn't anything complicated.

I'm still so new to the IR world and I really don't know what to do in post world. I generally just try a channel mix on it, and if I dont like it, try levels and then maybe B&W. I still need to work on the frames with my standard 20D from that day.

Scott_Quier · January 18, 2008

aktse wrote:

And I have to make a confession about the golden gate bridge photo (which I should have stated earlier). The post work is done by a friend. Originally, it looked like #2, #3, #4. And I posted it on flickr that way and I was about to send him the file to work on it since I thought it needed some POP to it. To my surprise, my friend saw it, grabbed the jpeg without me asking, and made a few adjustments since he loved the composition. I'll post the details once he gives me his secrets, but it isn't anything complicated.

April, fur sur post the secrets. There's a whole world out here waiting for them (ok, maybe not the whole world - just me.

)

firedancing4life · January 21, 2008

Great series!

tsk1979 · January 22, 2008

aktse wrote:

I use a modify xt body that got from maxmax. I was about to go the used body path, but it turned out to be the same price for me. It was an impulse buy and I always figured that I could find a buyer for it on dgrin, but after the first few shots, I was hooked. In general, I shoot less IR than with my standard body, but I have a higher percentage of keeps and have learned that natural elements, shadows and clouds work very well.

And let me know if you're ever back in the area for work.

Sure, will do!
Anyways what about metering?
I understand that a modified XT will have the IR cut filter removed from the sensor.
then you put a Filter in front of lens so that the sensor gets only IR.
When you compose a shot, does the in camera metering give a correct reading, or its hit or trial, like on cams which are not modified/

Scott_Quier · January 22, 2008

tsk1979 wrote:

Sure, will do!
Anyways what about metering?
I understand that a modified XT will have the IR cut filter removed from the sensor.
then you put a Filter in front of lens so that the sensor gets only IR.
When you compose a shot, does the in camera metering give a correct reading, or its hit or trial, like on cams which are not modified/

I had an opportunity to use April's IR modded camera during the Glacier shoot out (thanks again for that opportunity) and it was sweet! So sweet, in fact, that I'm in the process of getting one modded for myself - all because of her!

You don't need to put a filter on the lens. MaxMax replaces the stock IR filter with a filter that reduces/eliminates visible light from the sensor.

Using April's camera, I found that metering is not too far off, at least when shooting landscapes. If you aren't careful, there was a small tendency to blow highlights, but if you pay attention to the histogram you can easily correct that with a second exposure. Easy stuff!

tsk1979 · January 22, 2008

I guess if someone always shoots RAW then underexposing by half a stop in all shots would be a good idea?

Scott_Quier · January 22, 2008

tsk1979 wrote:

I guess if someone always shoots RAW then underexposing by half a stop in all shots would be a good idea?

It would work, but it is always better if one can get the exposure right in camera. So, if you aren't shooting action and you can take your time, a better choice might be to make your best guess at the required exposure, using either the light meter in the camera or a hand-held incident light meter (or even a spot meter), take a shot, check the histogram, and adjust the exposure as necessary for a second exposure.

I would think, though I haven't yet had the time to try this (I will when I get my IR modded camera!), that a little experience with a hand-held light meter would go a very long way to getting the exposure right the first time. Eventually one would learn what differences there are between IR and visible and how they effect the exposure of an IR photo and what subjects exposes very bright, etc. Like I said, that's just a guess and one that I am really looking forward to turning into knowledge gained by experience!

tsk1979 · January 23, 2008

Out of curiosity, I am wondering how would star trail shots look when shot with an IR camera.
IR light scatters much less than normal visible light, and even with some background light noise, such shots should come out terrific, anyone got any idea?

Flutist · January 23, 2008

My brother lives in that area and I've crossed the GGB many times. That shot you took of it is stunning!!!

dlplumer · May 28, 2008

Fabulous

aktse · May 28, 2008

I completely forgotten about this thread, and when I saw it pop up, I thought -- cool! There is someone who shoots California in IR; I can't wait to see the photos!

And then I realized they were my photos!

And then I saw the last shot of the golden gate. I completely forgotten how much I love that capture. Thank you so much for reminding me!

I've actually planned to get this one blown up and on my wall... I guess I better get off my butt and do so.

Thank you so much for your kinds words (and reminder!)

California Coast in IR

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