It’s a bit of a different world when you move into infrared imaging.
This is photography with a totally different look.
It used to be very difficult to capture infrared as the filters used to allow the non-visible light spectrum through were extremely dark making it difficult to see and frame your subject. The film was extremely sensitive and was quite susceptible to fogging ruining exposures before you even got them into the developer. In addition there was the need for focus adjustment as visible light focused on a different plane than the invisible spectrum which would often lead to out of focus images. And finally there was lots of grain in many of the captures.
Fast forward to today… I just received my Lumix G6 back from LifePixel after a conversion to allow the camera to capture infrared. It’s still not quite a piece of cake to create an infrared image but the capture sure got easy!
First infrared image from newly converted Lumix G6.
In this image the foreground area was in shadow so it wasn’t receiving the full infrared effect but the clouds, sky and rocks in the distance showed well. To combat this the image was triple processed. Once for the top half, and twice for the bottom to carry the infrared look through the image. Black and White conversion was made with NIK Silver FX Pro 2. Masks were applied to make the changes
With the filter switched to a straight infrared filter you end up with a reddish sepia-tone image straight out of camera.
In order to have a better idea of what I was capturing as far as a final image of Black & White infrared I shot with a camera setting for Black & White. I then set the camera to capture RAW + Jpeg so I would have all the information presented to the camera but also have a quick BW in the jpeg.
There is another way to process the images (well probably as many ways as there are photographers) which I’ll share in another post using Photoshop Channels.
When we are out and about we run across people who have character. People who have lived long and are happy to share about their lives if you only open the dialog. Over the years I have met or seen many people that I would have liked to have photographically captured an image of but was too nervous to ask.
I’m finding that I get more interesting conversations and life stories when I ask and share my wish to capture an image. People who know me might say, “Bob, SHY??! You’ve got to be kidding me?” But I have let situations go by where I just didn’t feel comfortable asking to create an image. usually it was all in my own head and I’m getting better thanks to spending time with Levi Sim. Levi is a wonderful person who connects with people in a great way. I enjoy his techniques for getting to know people and making them comfortable in front of the camera in a nano-second. When I was with Levi in Chicago I watched as he approached a guy on a motorcycle, in traffic, and had him maneuvering his bike in order to get a better background. The guy was happy to do it… Remember this is in traffic, in Chicago.
It was a wonderful conversation my wife and I had with Gary. He shared that he was born and raised in the desert. He loved tramping through the high Sierra Mountains where Ansel Adams created many of his iconic images. This came about because I had my camera (Lumix GX8) and after chatting with him asked if I might make a few exposures. He was flattered and we had a very pleasant time.
I had the 20mm 1.7 lens on and shot wide open. ISO 3200 This is a sweet piece of glass. I added just a bit of blur in the background to render the other people unrecognizable.
Word is eyes are the window to the soul. I find I enjoy seeing the results of the aging process on hands. Love the story I see here in Gary’s hands.
Last Saturday night I was on hand to photograph not one but two wonderful artists at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona, Arizona.
Part of my job there is to capture the musicians live on stage and create artwork for the Sound Bites Grill ‘Wall of Fame’. The other part of my gig is to create ‘straight’ photography images to help in promotion and things like press releases for when the artist returns for a future performance.
Here’s a description from his web site where you can check out his music. (I particularly like ‘Everlasting Desire’!) “Propulsive, melodic rock guitar in the hands of Grant Ferguson is a powerful reminder of the instrument’s glory days. Influenced by some of the great axe masters: Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, The Edge and others, Ferguson is pushing his all-instrumental sound toward a new rock vision.”
Grant Ferguson makin’ some beautiful sounds flow from his guitar. – Camera Lumix GX8
Live on stage at Sound Bites – Camera Lumix GH4
Grant captured with the new Lumix GX8. All images used the Lumix 35-100mm f2.8 lens
Following Grant’s set there was a break and we heard from Blues guitarist Leroy Miller.
A little about Leroy from his web site. Check his music (Try Over You from the self titled album) “Los Angeles blues sensation Leroy Miller has worked on countless recordings for music’s brightest stars like John Mayer, Macy Gray and Smash Mouth. Leroy has toured all over the world as a supporting act for bands such as Aerosmith and the Dave Mathews Band.”
Leroy Miller got the crowd up and dancing with his high energy rock guitar. Camera GX8
Leroy Miller – Camera Lumix GH4
Leroy Miller wailin’ it! Camera GH4
In putting the images together I make conversions to black and white for all of the press images. This guarantees the best look when printed on a press. If someone just converts a color image to grayscale the reproduction of the detail can get lost especially in newspaper reproduction. I often use Google’s NIK Silver FX Pro 2 for making the conversions. It gives me lots of options to make the Black & White have tones from light to dark without getting muddy or flat.
On this shoot I tried out the new Lumix GX8 for the first time under LED stage lights to see how it held up to the dark shadow areas and the lack of full spectrum in the stage lighting. I was impressed. While I would replace my GH4 camera with the GX8 I wouldn’t hesitate to use it as a back-up or grab it in a pinch. The quality of the images wouldn’t suffer one bit.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – I’ll show the Grant and Leroy’s ‘Wall of Fame’ images in a couple days.
Last night I was at my local and the Lumix GX8 with a 20mm f1.7 lens was in my hand. Played with some presets. Shot RAW and jpeg.
And, since I wasn’t really thinking I never moved away from the 1.7 f stop. But, it’s pretty amazing what you can do in post to save an image. Just to make it a little tougher I used one of the saved jpegs with a deep BW setting to work with.
The first image is straight out of camera.
This is SOOC with a deep contrast BW setting from the camera
I opened the above jpeg in Adobe Camera Raw by highlighting the image in Adobe Bridge and pushing CMD R MAC, (CTRL R PC) This gives you all the controls or ACR although it doesn’t give you access to the RAW info of the file it allows you to use the adjustment tools.
In this case I added a good dose of clarity to add a bit of tooth to the image, opened up the shadows, knocked down the highlights and opened up the shadows just a bit with a curves bump. Both have an interesting feel but I feel the second one with just a touch more punch worked better.
I believe you need to look around before you can see. And, you need to spend time seeing before you can create a vision with your photography. This is a post about an exercise I did and ask people to do to expand their vision. There are many variations on forcing yourself to study an area until you’ve come close to exhausting the photographic possibilities. In this case the ‘assignment’ was to photograph this subject without moving more than 5 feet in any direction for a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour.
Having a capable camera with you at all times helps to define your vision. The low profile and light weight of the micro 4/3rds system makes it easy for me to be more creative. In this case various Lumix lenses and the Lumix GX8 were used in the capture…
Here are contact sheets from the shoot followed by some of my favorites from the shoot…
Contact sheet one images are SOOC (straight out of Camera)
Contact sheet 2
Contact sheet 3… There were about 4 plus contact sheets all together but you get the idea!
Below were a few of the images I worked up from the session followed by a Time-Lapse of the shoot.
Black and white turned this into a very graphic feel and tells the story of ‘Place’
Aerial view with fish eye lens
Mood piece with some NIK Color Pro 4 FX. Dreamy…
Then it was on to the story of the Knights.
Many other images were captured during the ‘assignment’ but these were the ones I thought I’d share.
Time-lapse showing the shoot shot with Lumix FZ1000 mounted on tripod capturing an image every three seconds. Processed in camera to MP4. Very cool feature!
A symphony of sound awakened me this morning as the birds around my home greeted the new day.
Bird song ebbed and swelled in concert as the different species shouted love songs to their mates – or ran off invaders. There was so much going on it was hard to tell exactly…
But I digress.
The avian songs were the inspiration for today’s Sunday Photo/Art Quote as I was reminded that music informs the art of photography. I have been trying to get more ‘notes’ AKA nuances into my images. We have the musicality of notes in the form of light and shadow. The staff that we write upon consists of shadows. The bones of an image so to speak. These bones are overlaid by color in different hues and saturation. Accents can be added by dodging, burning and selectively sharpening areas of an image. Some images have such good bones they can sing their song without the color added as shown by Ansel Adams who gives us today’s quote.
“The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.” Ansel Adams
Ultimately as the birds inspired the subject and some of the words for today’s Photo Art Quote they also woke me up and I found myself moved to see what yonder light brings. I slipped on my boots and jeans, grabbed my camera and tripod along with a few accessories to see if there was music waiting to be shared.
And now it’s off to the digital darkroom to see if I can come up with a decent performance from the score I created this morning.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Ansel Adams in 1930 had been training to become a concert pianist while considering a career as a photographer. He decided, after seeing the photographs by Paul Strand, that “the camera, not the piano, would shape [his] destiny.” His mother and aunt both pleaded, “Do not give up the piano! The camera cannot express the human soul!” To which Adams replied, “The camera cannot, but the photographer can.”
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
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Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
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Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
