Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Experiments with my converted Infrared camera

I had an hour to play with my digital camera that has been converted to take Infrared shots.
I read on the web that the white balance should be set to custom setting by photographing a white card. I then took shots with both JPEG and RAW. Below shows the two unadjusted files.

I had downloaded a Photoshop action to process files taken with infrared digital cameras. This increases the contrast and then does some colour swapping using Channel Mixer. This works well with the JPEG file that has had the white balance correction but also gives an interesting effect with the RAW file

Each of these files was then converted to BW with Channel mixer - here the RAW files, as expected, gives a superior result.

I obviously need to do a lot more experimentation and theoretical consideration to achieve a consistent result.

2 comments:

Ian Wilson said...

Obviously, setting a custom white balance will only affect the JPEGs anyway. I love the final effect with the RAW file: similar tonal balance to the old Kodak film, but without the characteristic grain and halation effects. The horse is positively glowing as a result (maybe she's pregnant?)!!

A quick "back of the envelope" calculation based on the EXIF data puts the effective ISO at about 80, assuming the adult horse was in full sun. Again, very close to HIE, which was about 64 with a deep red filter (if memory serves). Great for hand-holding...

I can predict hours of endless fun experimenting over the next few weeks, and look forward to seeing the results. Do you need to do any focus adjustments, or has the firmware been tweaked as part of the conversion?

Yours jealously!

Ann Miles said...

The focus has been tweaked by ACS aso should be accurate - not tested yet. Will post more tonight from raw files adjusted using a technique involving a DNG profile editor. I am not quite sure I understand it all but am perservering.

Ann Miles Photography - My Favourite Images of the Past10 years or so