IR on the CHEAP

[andy153]

And now folks I share the Photoshop Action for true Infrared pictures - which I know works from CS upwards, this one HAS POP UPS THAT WALK YOU THROUGH THE ACTION and will also explain the steps as you go through it. It will also allow you to make your own adjustments at each stage as you go along. Don, this is what I used on Lady Bug. For those who do not have IR cameras or filters, try taking a normal picture, load it into photoshop and INVERT it. Then run this action on it, I think you may find it fun.

LINK:

http://www.prophotonut.com/2008/08/1...free-download/

I would recommend this site as well as I find it very good and helpful.

And another Tip: SHOOT IN JPEG . I have not yet found it possible to shoot my colour infrared system with RAW capture, as Photoshop, Aperture or Lightroom do NOT have the adjustment range within their colour balance sliders to pull the colours into an acceptable starting point. OTHER PC PROGRAMS may well be different - but I use a Mac.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by andy153

..........And another Tip: SHOOT IN JPEG . I have not yet found it possible to shoot my colour infrared system with RAW capture, as Photoshop, Aperture or Lightroom do NOT have the adjustment range within their colour balance sliders to pull the colours into an acceptable starting point. OTHER PC PROGRAMS may well be different - but I use a Mac.

Foxy would crack up reading that as he is a Mac nut.

Only time for a quick play with that one Andy.
I use RAW ( nef ), so have done a quick side by side with the Khromagery free action that I use, with files converted to 16bit tiff in NX2.
For this comparison only the actions have been run. No other tweeks.

Link to Khromagery for those processing 16bit files.
http://khromagery.com.au/digital_ir.html


D100 with its old processing engine takes quite some time to write a custom WB raw file to the card which you may find a pain. I am fairly relaxed about that though, as my subjects are not going anywhere.

Don

[andy153]

Thanks Don, it keeps life interesting to tweak Basil's Brush from time to time I can tell you went straight through as the Gaussian Blur starts at 50% but I usually reduce it to zero. Did you find the pop-ups a help? I think others might as it sort of explains what it's doing as you go through.
Like both thumbs - I also use the Khromagery Action as well as a couple of others and some I've written myself.

[Don Hoey]

Andy,
This was just a quick comparison and no more. I've been busy doing NX tutorials for David, Jims dad.
Now that is done I will try a few tests having read through your link.

I have to get my head round this comment from Damiens Recipe for creating colour infrared pictures ............
" Shoot in jpeg. Once you have your camera shoot in jpeg. I have not yet found it possible to shoot my colour infrared system with RAW capture, as neither Photoshop or Lightroom have the adjustment range within their colour balance sliders to pull the colours in to an acceptable starting point. Capture One or Raw Developer may be well be different. "

I am a bit puzzled as my understanding of the difference between 8 and 16 bit is the amount of colour info per primary colour and no more.
8bit - 256 intensity values for each primary colour and 16bit - 65536 intensity values for each primary colour.

I am sure that how an image editor recognises/or not, the custom WB value is a greater influencing factor.

21 bookmarked links on IR still to properly read through. I think it will be a lot quicker for me to do a few experiments myself.

Don

[andy153]

Hi Don it puzzled me too until I realised that most of my stuff comes out of Aperture and I've been exporting jpegs for editing in Photoshop, rather than editing within Aperture itself. So I tried importing direct off a card Via Capture NX2 and used an NEF file in Photoshop and Lightroom. I'm still trying to sort it out because on each occasion I ended up with PSD or TIFF - so I'm pouring through Scott Kelby looking for an answer. I have to say however I'm finding the JPEG route perfectly acceptable so I'm also puzzled by Damiens statement which I confess I just copied without reading too closely.

[Don Hoey]

You just beat me to it Andy,

I tried a few shots today to compare those taken in RAW and those taken in Jpeg. Raw were converted to tiff in NX2 and then IR conversions were done in CS2 using the Khromagery action. I could not see much difference between the two. So despite the massive difference in the cameras write to card speed I will stick with Nefs to give myself 16bit images. The advantage of that will no doubt be in lack of posterisation in the skies.

Just for a chuckle I took an infrared and a standard visible light shot in order to try and paint the lavender blooms in on the IR version.
Very difficult to find the flower heads in the mass of white, so next time I will try something a bit easier.

Don

[Don Hoey]

Andy,
If you are happy with Jpegs then stick with them.
I do not know if your converted D100 is any faster at writing a Custom WB NEF file to card, but on mine using an on the lens IR filter that is a long time ( 35 secs ). Jpegs on the other hand are very quick.

Don

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by andy153

........So I tried importing direct off a card Via Capture NX2 and used an NEF file in Photoshop and Lightroom. I'm still trying to sort it out because on each occasion I ended up with PSD or TIFF - so I'm pouring through Scott Kelby looking for an answer.

I am doing it the old fashioned way that I had to go when I used the lack of power laptop.
Open the Nef in NX2 then save as a 16bit Tiff. Open CS2 then process the Tiff.

I remember Chris used to use PSD files untill he got NX. His verdict was Nef's take far less space than PSD's.

Don

[andy153]

Thanks Don, the D100 is set to RAW and the downloads from camera direct connection to computer take forever - 30 images - up to 15 minutes. The card in the reader is not much better but is faster -(I use an 8Gb SanDisk Extreme III). I' going to switch to taking in JPEG and will see what the difference is - Love the Lavender Thumbnail - great shot.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by andy153

......the D100 is set to RAW and the downloads from camera direct connection to computer take forever - 30 images - up to 15 minutes. ..............(I use an 8Gb SanDisk Extreme III).

30 secs each

I have Nikon View 6 (pre NX days ) and NX transfer needed for Stevies D300 pics, and I find View 6 with D2X downloads files faster than NX with D300 files. Yet open those same files in NX2 and the D2X ones take longer to load.

On the card front I have only just retired my origional IBM 1Gb microdrive and replaced it with a suitably low tech Sandisk Ultra II 2GB. In the same vein I read Foxys thread which reminded me that when I got the D100 all that time ago, it came with a 128mb card and a 1 Gb microdrive was considered pretty much state of the art.
8Gb would have been unimaginable.

Don