[spillway]

I love winter landscape scenes and this one jumped out at me

PENTAX Photo Gallery - Alien Fog

Can anyone guess why the photographer chose a long exposure/narrow aperture for this shot? He used 4 sec, f16 on a beautiful winter morning.

The sky looks surreal. Is that from the chosen exposure? I have so much to learn, but I would have guessed that the fog would have blurred in a 4 sec exposure.

Thanks for any comments.

-Larry (winter is coming soon to the Upper Midwest)

[shutterdrone]

The answer to almost all questions is: it's an infrared shot. Shooting in the morning like that, with an infrared filter, results in long exposure times on many cameras (his might be modified, but I doubt that with a 4sec exposure). F/16 was probably chosen for focal depth, and not much else. The fog is "blurred" where it is moving quickly -- see the tuft that was moving near the top. If he had converted it to black and white instead of false-color, the sky would've been nearly black - which is expected as little infrared light exists in the blue part of the sky there.

You can similar sky-effects (but not the false color) using polarizing filter and a red or orange filter (or simulating the red/orange filter in photoshop, which I've found preferable in digital images). In fact, I prefer this style over all for b&w shots, but that's just me =)

!c

[alinla]

A four second exposure also helps smooth out any ripples or unevenness to the water in the foreground.

[jshurak]

hehe, the photographer was probably wearing shorts when he took this! you could hold an infrared filter over your eye and stare into the sun without too many problems. Shutterdrone summed it up nicely.

[john_mantz]

PICKING A CAMERA TO SHOT INFRARED
Read this tip in a photo magazine and it helped me choose my Nikon 8400 (didn't want to modify my DSLR) for IR photography. One way to test a camera to see if it is capable of shooting infrared is to aim the lens at a dark part of a room or any area where the iris is forced to open up due to low light. Set the camera to Black and White shooting mode if it has one. Hold a TV remote (must be the type that uses an infrared emitter) in front of the camera and aimed it at the lens. Now do one of the following: depending on the camera your testing either take a picture or look at the LCD viewer on the back while you press any button on the TV remote (like volume). If you see a little white spot in the picture or on the LCD viewer this means the camera is "seeing" the glowing IR emitter on the TV remote, this tells you that there's a high probability this camera will shot IR.

[spillway]

Verrrrry interesting. Thanks for the replies. And, yup, I can see the fog blur in the upper part of the photo.

[vinzer]

The photographer of that picture is a forum member here, I think. I distinctly recall seeing that picture posted here in the photos section.

[Jonson PL]

Very fine photo, thanks for pointing us to it.

Some members seem to have converted K110D's to IR cameras.

[khardur]

Johson_PL: No, I didn't convert my K110D to infrared - it was just done with a Hoya R72 filter attached. If I ever get a second and third body, I'll probably get one converted, but then again, I love the long exposures required too...

spillway: Larry, thanks for the kind words about the photo (along with everyone else) My dad thought I shot this in winter too.

jshurak: no, I wore pants, but if I weren't walking around in tall grass I probably would've gone with shorts. (I love the outdoors, I hate bugs...)

Vinzer: Good memory!

[borno]

hehe, the photographer was probably wearing shorts when he took this! you could hold an infrared filter over your eye and stare into the sun without too many problems. Shutterdrone summed it up nicely.

Don't EVER DO THIS it is supposed to burn your retina. Thats what I read somewhere anyways.

I love that shot btw

[shutterdrone]

Don't EVER DO THIS it is supposed to burn your retina. Thats what I read somewhere anyways.

I love that shot btw

While IR isn't nearly as bad as UV light on your eyes, it's certainly not good - and the IR filters let it all pass through. It can seriously damage your eyes to try and look at the sun, even through an IR filter; although you're unlikely to notice it. (Repeated exposure would be what gets ya.)

And the other point is true too, it is a great shot =)

!c

[jshurak]

While IR isn't nearly as bad as UV light on your eyes, it's certainly not good - and the IR filters let it all pass through. It can seriously damage your eyes to try and look at the sun, even through an IR filter; although you're unlikely to notice it. (Repeated exposure would be what gets ya.)

And the other point is true too, it is a great shot =)

!c

my bad. horrible joke...so sorry, I hope no one actually listened to me..