Testing - First time doing IR

[VouS]

I am not sure where to post IR images so i decided to post it under landscape.. I was using cokin filter P-007 ... is this the way IR looked after conversion ? what is the bright spot in the middle of the pic ? is that a flare or hotspot ?

Digital Rebel 300D
Manual Mode
13s
f/8.0
50.0mm
iso100

Original


Edited

[TrailsofLife]

You got it right. Congrats! The bright spot is called 'Hot Spot', try to use a wider aperture, like f5.6 or 4. Should be able to get rid of the hot spot.

[tomcat]

hmm... hot spot problem

Are you using the kit lens? It tends to have this problem in IR photography.

[VouS]

Thx max.. is it too saturated or too constrast for the process ? should it be more pale colour ? can you reprocess the picture accoring to your taste ? i just want to see if there is any different ...

TOmcat : i was using 50mm f1/4 ... for IR .. which is one better ? prime lens or zoom lens ? i tried to use 70/200mm f/4 and 20-35mm f/2.8 .. both of them produce many circle dot ...the longer exposure ..produce bigger dot.. is it flare that cause it ?

[deadpixel]

Originally Posted by VouS i was using 50mm f1/4 ... for IR .. which is one better ? prime lens or zoom lens ? i tried to use 70/200mm f/4 and 20-35mm f/2.8 .. both of them produce many circle dot ...the longer exposure ..produce bigger dot.. is it flare that cause it ?

Andrew,

Some 50mm prime lenses have been know to produce pretty nasty hot-spots in IR photography, especially when the aperture is small. I'm not sure about the Canon lens but I do know that the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 produces hot-spots readily when its aperture is set above f/8.

I've found that zoom lenses tend to be less prone to hot-spots, particularly if you steer clear of the zoom lenses' widest end. However, prime lenses are more convinent for IR shoots as they usually have the IR focal adjustment point marked on the lens. This allows you to easily use hyperfocus to achieve max DOF.

Cheers
Matt

[Pablo]

Hi VouS,

With my 20D I have been using the EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens and found it will give no hot spots.

You will be able to drop the exposure time down a little from what you are using.

Mind you I usually use ISO400 as it gives very little noise (should be the same for the 350D).

By the way, how did you get the people to stand still for 13 sec

Cheers.

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by VouS Thx max.. is it too saturated or too constrast for the process ? should it be more pale colour ? can you reprocess the picture accoring to your taste ? i just want to see if there is any different ... TOmcat : i was using 50mm f1/4 ... for IR .. which is one better ? prime lens or zoom lens ? i tried to use 70/200mm f/4 and 20-35mm f/2.8 .. both of them produce many circle dot ...the longer exposure ..produce bigger dot.. is it flare that cause it ?

Some lenses are more prone to hot-spot problem than others and the problem is aggravated by smaller apertures/longer exposures. Your 50mm f/1.4 is one such lens. The much cheaper 50mm f/1.8 MK II is not prone to hot-spot problem on the other hand.

Here's a list of 'Good' and 'Bad' Canon lenses for IR photography that was compiled from other users' experience and we use as a guide:

Good
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Canon EF 28mm f/2.8
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 MKI
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 MKII
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L
Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS
Canon EF 135mm f/2L
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.0-5.6 IS L
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro
Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM
Sigma AF 15mm f/2.8 EX Fisheye

Bad
Canon EF 20mm f/2.8
Canon EF 35mm f/2
Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5
Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8L
Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5
Canon EF 35-80 f/4.0-5.6
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8
Tamron 70-300mm f3.x-xxx Macro
Sigma 20mm f/1.8
Sigma 50-500mm "Bigma"
Tamron 19-35mm

You mentioned that your 70-200mm f/4 has hot-spot problem.... mabe we need to update the list to reflect this.

The Cokin P007 is not very good when used with Canon DSLRs from my experience. The P007 is not as opaque to visible light as the Hoya R72 and tends to let in too much visible light which could 'contaminate' the desired IR effect. Also, the Cokin filter holder is not 100% light-tight and is prone to flare problems due to light leakage especially in long exposure shots.

[TrailsofLife]

Originally Posted by VouS Thx max.. is it too saturated or too constrast for the process ? should it be more pale colour ? can you reprocess the picture accoring to your taste ? i just want to see if there is any different ...

Here you go:


What I did is a auto level, channel mix, adjusted the contrast.
Fixed the yellow in Hue & Saturation, yellow channel. Just push the lightness to max. Minus cyan in cyan channel to get whiter clouds.

Lastly, fix the hotspot with burn tool.

Actually, colours and saturation is all personal preference.

[teerex]

Here's my try.

Auto Levels, Channel Swap, Hue/Saturation to bring down Reds and Yellows, slight increase for Blue. USM 80;1.5;0.0.

Hot Spot in the middle is still there. Maybe can correct it like Max did, burn.




This one with burning done at the center of the pic

[VouS]

Ahh.. thx Max... i love the way you tune the color...i will try later to see if i able to achieve same result...

btw thx to teerex for the effort ...

as for the 70/200mm f/4 .. i think there wasn't any hotspot.. but i was seeing various dots exposure that size appear randomly depending the shutter or aperture setting ... which is different look from hotspot ... i will pose it later

btw for you guys capturing IR.. do you guys normalling get it underexposed or pretty good exposure before you tune up ?

[TrailsofLife]

Thanks man!

For exposure, normally I try to expose it correctly, but when open up in photoshop, its always a little, if not, at least 1 stop under exposed.
What I always do in PS is Auto Level or Auto Contrast before I mix the channel, if result is not good, I'll mix the channel first then Auto level or Auto Contrast.

Auto Level tend to change the colour alittle, some times its nice, some times its not. If I feel that the colour is alright, I'll just do a Auto contrast so the colour won't change.

[VouS]

Hey Max.. at lastt.. i am able to achieve your process version ... it took me awhile to play around with the burn tool and the hue/saturation level ... though its abit different .. but i guess this is the closest i can get ..



This following pic is the one i want to show you what is the hexagon shape ? longer exposure or more light enter will cause more visible and bigger hexagon shape...

20s
f/8.0
50.0mm
iso100

[tomcat]

Just flarings from light leakage due to poor sealing between the Cokin filter and filter holder. The edge of the 50-200mm lens is closer to the source of leakage (edge of the filter) than that of the 50mm f/1.4 lens because of the difference in diameters ie 77mm compared to 58mm.

[TrailsofLife]

Alright! Now you know the drill...go out and start shooting

From the shadow of the things in front, your camera which is almost facing the sun. So I guess its flare. Use a hood, maybe can shade your lens from the sun.

You should be able to see it while composing if its flare.

[VouS]

max.. may i know what is the different between setting CWB with green grass and blue sky ?

[TrailsofLife]

Actually I not very sure. I read somewhere before is to "tell" the camera that the green/cyan channel is white so you get whiter leaves.