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how to make infrared pictures look good?

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Offline barret

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how to make infrared pictures look good?
« on: 19 / April / 2009, 12:59:04 »
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As spring springs out, there are a lot of green plants around, so i took my S3 with Hoya R72 to make some IR pictures. However, my pictures look bad, compared to some nice pics seen on the net.
So, my question is: how to take such pictures so that they look good?
My main problems are:
1. my pics look red, is that ok? what WB should i set to get nice pictures? ;)
2. my pics are a bit blurred (although that might be focus related issue)

what post processing methods should i use to beautify such images?

here are some samples:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barret8/sets/72157617048439386/
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Offline PhyrePhoX

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Re: how to make infrared pictures look good?
« Reply #1 on: 19 / April / 2009, 13:10:57 »
wb should be set to custom, for example do manual whitebalance on grass or tree leaves.
blurred, well, use a tripod. plus, ir light comes in at a "different" wavelength, dont know how to describe in better technical terms, so the autofocus is slightly off - manual focusing should be made.
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Offline leedsgreen

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Re: how to make infrared pictures look good?
« Reply #2 on: 21 / April / 2009, 18:13:21 »
Hi Barret,

PhyrePhox has given some good advice. Furthermore, I would say, try and shoot in (CHDK) RAW and then develop in LightBox Image Editor. You can download a trial version of this program but it worked so well with my IR images that I paid the modetst $20 (I think) to buy it - it's worth every penny (nb I am in no way associated with Lightbox team)! Attached are some of my shots using Lightbox. The first two (Bridge and Garden) were taken in RAW and the third (Fens) in jpeg. The Fens shot clearly keeps its red cast but, even so, Lightbox still has transformed it into something special (in my eyes).

Of course, it still helps to sharpen RAW files, which I do in Canon ZoomBrowser (and denoise with Noiseware Community Edition, which was also free).

http://www.lightboxeditor.com/
http://www.imagenomic.com/nwpg.aspx

Hope this helps,

Nick
« Last Edit: 21 / April / 2009, 18:15:52 by leedsgreen »
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Offline leedsgreen

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Re: how to make infrared pictures look good?
« Reply #3 on: 21 / April / 2009, 18:14:01 »
Garden.jpg
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Offline leedsgreen

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Re: how to make infrared pictures look good?
« Reply #4 on: 21 / April / 2009, 18:14:35 »
Fens.jpg
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Offline barret

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Re: how to make infrared pictures look good?
« Reply #5 on: 25 / April / 2009, 11:07:31 »
whoa, nice pictures :)
thanks a lot leedsgreen! i'll try that out.
btw: what white balance do you set to achieve best results in infrared photography?
« Last Edit: 26 / April / 2009, 05:12:45 by barret »
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Offline leedsgreen

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Re: how to make infrared pictures look good?
« Reply #6 on: 25 / April / 2009, 21:06:05 »
Barret,

I normally either leave it on AWB or Tungsten setting. This latter setting gives a more pleasing blue cast on my IR jpeg images. However, when shooting RAW it doesn't really matter because Lightbox (or any other RAW converter*) just alters the white balance, either automatically or manually. BTW I have a a710is.

Nick

* As well as Lightbox, have you tried Raw Therapee? This is another excellent RAW converter and free (although you can make a domation if you like to). It's found at:

http://www.rawtherapee.com/?page=features
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Offline barret

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Re: how to make infrared pictures look good?
« Reply #7 on: 26 / April / 2009, 05:13:40 »
ok, then i'll try that with raw & tungsten :) thanks for the tips, i'll post my results later :)
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Offline leedsgreen

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Re: how to make infrared pictures look good?
« Reply #8 on: 27 / April / 2009, 05:46:51 »
Hi Barret,

Yeah, pleae do. I'd be really interested to see them.

Nick
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