One more from the 'Woods

Here's another IR redwoods shot from last weekend. A lot of the trees in the area were burned and rotting away giving them each a unique character. I'm a sucker for trees with character, so I looked for an angle to show the center tree off against the backlight and fog. It has probably been in this condition for decades, and will probably see many more, but it looked very frail amongst the living trees - and seemed like it would come down with a breath of wind.

What do y'all think of this one?

Wow this is really cool too Aaron. I prefer this one vs. your previous post. The framing of the light beyond, and the prominence of the centered shrub is really nice combined with the effects of the IR filter.

I prefer your first post,that said I think both are great. I like the fact thats it so different from most of the forest scenes posted. Very nice.

I do like the composition, as the burned out tree is nicely framed by the bigger trees on either side. What would you think about cropping a bit more off the sides (to the edge of the larger trees), or perhaps burning in the sides a bit to make the area between the large side trees pop a little more? The IR look is cool.

-Brett

Aaron, I am really liking these IR images from the forest. You've got really good composition here and I just cannot see anything I'd want to change in this.

Can you tell me a little more about your IR setup (what filters, etc.) and technique?

Awesome Aaron. I like this even better than the first one. Composition is stronger here and the fog adds some great depth to the image.

Really like your IR work gives a very new and exciting look to a somewhat overshot topic. Very nice work

Ray Still

This is pretty excellent.. can't think of anything in way of improvement... The comp. is very good..

This great! It's really everything I look for in a forest scene, mood, atmosphere and comp. You nailed it! The only thing I would do if it was my image would be to make a 3:4 crop and take a little off the top and a little off the bottom to enhance the power of the fog and backlight.

I'm curious as to what you IR setup is? I ended up keeping my old 5d when I bought the 1d and have been considering sending it out to Life Pixel to have them do the IR setup.

I grew up In Northern California and it was about a 25 minute drive from my house to get to the nearest redwood forest "Montgomery Woods State Reserve". One of the trees there held the title of "tallest tree in the world" for a very short period of time until they discovered a taller one. Despite having grown up in the shadow of the redwoods I still find myself awestruck every time I see these majestic trees. I find myself missing the redwoods up here in Portland. I'll have to make my way down south sometime this summer for a camping/photography trip in the redwoods. I really like what you've done here with the IR photography in this and your last post. Its nice to see the redwoods photographed in a new creative way.

Thanks for the interest guys.

To answer your questions so far - I'm using my old Rebel XT modded by life pixel with their enhanced color IR filter. I wasn't really interested in color IR, but after speaking to one of the techs from LP, I was told that it had the most detail, DR, and image potential - after some photoshop work. Generally, unless it is very sunny, the images straight from the cam are quite flat and ugly. But you can absolutely pummel the files in photoshop to get the desired contrast without any real side effects. This shot was from one exposure with the histogram far from being clipped on either end. Shooting the same type of scene with my 40D, the dynamic range required two exposures 3 stops apart to control shadows and highlights.

A few downsides I have found so far with IR are that autofocus is just about useless. I rarely use it anyway - so not a big deal to me. Second, infrared light seems to not travel through the lens the same way that visible light does. weird things can happen that I have yet to understand. Sometimes it seems that the light doesn't all end up focused in the same plane. The image will be generally quite sharp, but may have some unexplained soft areas. Look at the thin branches above the burned out tree in this image. They are pretty mushy. Third lens flare can be a real pain while shooting nearly into the sun. Lastly, metering is very erratic. I had to underexpose by 3 stops for the correct exposure for this shot, while on my 40D -2/3EV would be just about right. I have started to get the hang of how to out-guess the cameras built in meter.

Yeah there are some downsides - some of which I new about when I had my cam converted. Some I am fairly bummed about. The soft spots, and flare mainly. The great news is that having an IR camera allows me to shoot in conditions where i normally would have put my camera away and went home. Bright blue mid-day skies are awesome for IR. I can usually shoot all day long, no matter what the conditions are now.

My main reason for getting the IR conversion was to do something that not many people are doing - or even heard of in some cases. I want to make images that the everyday Joe the Plummer can't do with his P&S. It's hard to be unique with a camera these days, and I am hoping that these kind of images will help distinguish my photos from the masses.

If anyone has any more questions, I'd be glad to try and answer.

Wow Aaron, I'm not usually a big fan of IR, but this is fantastic! The trees definitely have character, and the IR treatment imparts a glowing luminosity that makes the scene nothing short of magical. Very nice work!

Aaron, thanks for the detailed writeup on your equipment and technique. It is quite interesting. I dabbled in IR when I owned an Oly C8080 P&S and got some half decent results, but I didn't continue experimenting with IR once I moved up to a DSLR. I wouldn't mind trying again.

One point - on your images, do you think you could characterize the areas that have the mushy or OOF conditions? One thought that came to mind was that perhaps, since IR is basically picking up heat signature (or the lack of it), the areas that are mushy are areas where there are varying heating effects in higher measure than in other areas. Just a thought...

Geoff, I'm by no means an expert on this type of stuff, but my understanding is that in a sense, all light is a measure of heat. However, IR light is far from what I would consider a "thermal" image for a lack of a better term. It is just out of the range of our sight. If I point my camera at my wood stove, it looks black - with or without a fire in it.

I think the effect is due more to the way lenses are designed - with visible light in mind. I can shoot straight through my 10 stop ND filter with hardly any effect at all on exposure time. IR just sails right through it. I think has a similar effect inside the lens, not reacting to the optical coatings and laws of physics in the same manner as normal light. The result is poorly directed light in certain conditions. Like I said I'm no expert, but that seems to be what is going on. The softness usually occurs at or near the edges of the frame where I can imagine it might be easy for IR light to get mis-directed.

I've never been the type to do tedious lens testing and pixel peeping, but I should - just to see what the optimum setting are. Maybe this weekend, if I have the time....

I'm rarely a big fan of infrared, but with that said this is one of the better ones I've seen. The comp works perfectly for me, and I love the mood created. The foreground shrubbery and the trees fading into the mist in the background really give depth.

I think you nailed this one, Aaron. I generally don't care much for IR shots that shout what they are, and this image appears more like a toned B&W. This quality of light is really nice.

This is nice, I like the way you've toned it, gives it more mood than perhaps a color version would?

a great shot...but would like to see it in Black and white!