I'm totally obsessed, to be honest. I can't take a good normal color picture to save my life lately, I'm thinking so much about what I can try with the IR filter.

I need to invent a snap-on lens filter ring, like lens caps are, instead of a screw on mount- maybe I could superglue this thing to a lens cap where I've cut out the inside - that might work, though vignetting might be a problem with the extended mount.

*sigh* I'll shut up now, here's the pics:

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[carpents]

did you do a manual white balance? You simply *must* - otherwise the photos will come out too red, even if you change them in post processing. Try manually white balancing on a piece of cloud, or greenery, (i've even used an 18% gray lens cleaning cloth I have in my bag)

had a conversation about this in another thread: even though in theory shooting RAW should allow you to use any WB setting and come up with good results, it simply doesn't work this way.

keep in mind too - do the white balance with the aperture nearly wide open (no reason other than to allow a short shutter time doing the WB), and set the camera up in manual to be sure the meter says you're overexposing by at least 2 stops. The meter generally is fooled by the IR into underexposing. You need to push it in order to get a good exposure, and a good white balance. -

then in PP I alter the neutral white point as well by a little, but not much.

Is the camera going to manually set a white balance below the 2000 degree mark in Photoshop? I am currently shooting IR in RAW without manually setting the white balance, but then adjusting the temperature to 2000 and a tint of -50 or so. It seems to get colors similar to yours, but I'm open to changing my process.

[Matt Miller]

Thank you for the suggestions. I'll try both today.

[khardur]

carpents: I've been adjusting the WB in Photoshop similar to your settings too (my starting point is usually 2200 / -60 on the tint)

But doing a manual WB does make a big difference.

Here's a test from just now - I did this the other day, but I wanted to do it again to ensure I'm not messing something up.

Two identical exposures, first one set at daylight, second one with a manual WB. Both processed in ACR, the temperature set at 2000 and -60 on the tint for both (I ensured I did the exact same settings by hitting "previous conversion" for the second photograph, as well as checking the readings themselves to be sure they were the same)
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The next set I reversed my procedure. Took the first one using a manual white balance- the second one I changed it to daylight. Again, both I've changed the color temp to the same setting in ACR.

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So from what my little test shows me, and what I've experienced shooting actual pictures, I believe the camera adjusts how much it reads certain colors depending on the WB and writes it into the RAW file directly.

You really should try this for yourself and you'll see you can get much different results.

I'll have to try better tests, but if I forget to do a WB then the red gets so blown out, it seems to affect other things when converting the RAW.

[mtnbearhug]

sorry for the lack of details Mtnbearhug - I use the 18-55 "kit" lens, and the 40mm Limited - with a Hoya R72 IR filter attached to the front.

The problem is, you have to compose the scene before you put the filter on, because you can't see visible light through it. (well, if you point it at the sun you can see a tiny red dot - but that can't be good for your eyes either!)

So I've spent a lot of time lately screwing the filter on and off, and am starting to think of ways I can devise to just snap it on and off like a lens cap, as opposed to all the "on and off" stuff.

Besides, if it doesn't sit right on the filter thread, I run the chance of dropping it. I've been a lot more careful lately, but I've dropped it quite a few times when I was first trying it out.

FYI, none of the color shots are "photoshopped" as in I didn't paint the colors in, or change certain ones. I've altered the white balance slightly and upped the saturation in the color ones to bring out the colors the camera captures, no more.

Thanks for the info.. It is very interesting and looks like a lot of hard work and alot of fun!!

I showed these to my boyfriend the other day and he likes.. YOU could do that with just a lense??? So now he is looking up pricing for me.. LOL