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IR walkabout

jaapv

Subscriber Member
A walk in the park today. M8, Summaron 3.5, 3.5 cm goggled, 092 filter, ISO 1250. Any comments, negative or positive welcome. This is a learning curve for me.




















 

LJL

New member
Jaap,
As always, I find your compositions very engaging. Always drawn into and around the images. These are no exception. While I appreciate the artistic rendering, the graininess, the selenium-like tone on several....it is hard for me to get as excited about IR shooting as some others. It is an artform for some, but it just never moves me very much.

That is not a shot at your efforts or work. As I said, the compositions and the rest are attractive. I just do not see the IR stuff as others do. From a technical perspective, holding the details and shadows looks nice, as do the textures. These would probably look pretty nice in color also ;-)

LJ
 
H

Haya

Guest
Nice images my favorite is the 2nd image the IR tone really works with the trees and the lines that draw your eyes to the person at the end of the road.
 

jaapv

Subscriber Member
The images were all at ISO 1250, the aperture was 5.6, the speeds vry between 1/90th and 1/250 at AE.
The sculpture was at f11, 1/45th. The nice thing about the Summaron is that it has no IR vignetting at any aperture, so it is straightforward shooting. An amazingly good lens at 54 years old :).
My main problem was postprocessing. The images were normally grainy, but I converted to B&W in CS3 instead of in RAW. When adjusting the gradient by balancing the red and magenta, the skies turned horribly splotchy, so I had to apply rather drastic noisereduction to the sky by a correction layer, Gaussiian blur, layer mask and paint in the smoothness.
 

DaveB

New member
The middle of the day is usually so poorly suited for photography. The lighting is hard and harsh shadows make people look like robots.

These same factors make middays perfect for IR photography. I love the way the light and shadow draws in the images above.

IR is the perfect way to spend the day while waiting for the golden hour.
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
OK, this is an honest question. I'm trying to understand the appeal of IR photography. Can you tell me what you like about it? I feel a little funny even asking, since it would be so easy to misconstrue the question as a a form of criticism. But that's not the case.

In general, I'm perfectly comfortable with styles of art that don't immediately resonate with me but somehow press another's buttons. Yet I find myself wondering what I'm not seeing when it comes to IR photography. Lots of people go to great lengths to produce it and it makes me feel as if I've got a rather large blind spot in my sensibilities.

So the question is sincere, why do you like it?

Tim
 

mwalker

Subscriber Member
Tim, you need to be a product of the 70's where your method of photographic achievement is based on if it would look good on the cover of a Pink Floyd album.:D
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
Ahhhh. Now I get it. As it turns out, I am a "product" of the 70s, but never liked Pink Floyd! Thanks for clearing that up, it might be some sort of gene preference thing. :ROTFL:
 

LJL

New member
Ahhhh. Now I get it. As it turns out, I am a "product" of the 70s, but never liked Pink Floyd! Thanks for clearing that up, it might be some sort of gene preference thing. :ROTFL:
This is kind of funny for me also.....I too am a product of the '70s, but I did like Pink Floyd (maybe a bit too much at times :grin: ), AND I did try shooting a lot of B/W IR stuff back then. There were always some interesting results, but as Tim says, I just never "got it" the way others have. For a while I too thought I was genetically different or something from other great artistic photogs. Always left me wondering what went wrong in the chemistry :confused:

I still like the comps and the treatments, but still scratch my head wondering what it is that I am not seeing....but hey, you could probably put me in a dark room (not a darkroom :grin:), and I would be confused.

LJ
 

jaapv

Subscriber Member
Ouch! Being asked to explain one's technical choice on artistic grounds. Not easy. I'll give it a try....
I always look at light when photographing, that is rather basic. But IR allows me to work with invisible light. The forms are the same, the contrasts totally different, sometimes inverted, giving the scene another, otherwordly feel. Any photograph is an abstraction of reality, these an abstraction of a reality we cannot see.
Maybe a matter of taste, I a am a great fan of magic realistic and surrealistic painting, not that I want to compare my dabblings to the masters of those genres.
But it is something one should not use too often, it becomes a trick instead of a style then.
 
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TRSmith

Subscriber Member
... The forms are the same, the contrasts totally different, sometimes inverted, giving the scene another, otherwordly feel. Any photograph is an abstraction of reality, these an abstraction of a reality we cannot see.
That makes sense to me and I applaud your willingness to look beyond and explore. Thanks for your honest reply.


:thumbup:

Tim
 

Maggie O

Active member
I think IR looks cool. It's a reminder that we only see a small portion of the universe around us and that wonders lie just beyond that which we expect to see, if we make the effort.

I'm not sure I like the selenium toning on these pix, though. Maybe if there were some deeper, actual black tones in the photos it'd work for me, but as they stand, they're just too blue for my tastes. All IMO and YMMV and that's a good thing.
 

Maggie O

Active member
You know, I just had an idea- what if you combined IR and Orton techniques with these images? I'm thinking that would get you closer to the B&W IR film look than using NR, etc...
 

jaapv

Subscriber Member
There are many possibilities, Maggie; for instance, the 092 filter leaves a residual visible light image, shifted far into the red, allowing these straight RAW colour developments. I uncropped one image too. I think I like the composition with the kid in it better. And I did not denoise the skies.








 
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LJL

New member
Jaap,
These look very interesting in their own way. While the B/W renderings are more what most of us think about in IR stuff, these color versions have their own surrealism that is not unattractive to me.

Your blotchy sky is more pronounced here, but still not a problem. The larger crop with the kid just entering the frame does change that image. I like that human element, just as in the first one with the person at the far end of the path. The kid pulls you away, but points you back into the frame for some story. Interesting. I told you I loved your compositions, so I really am less worried about whatever you do to the colors ;-)

LJ
 
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