Infrared Learning Curve, Or, Let's Talk About Bonsai

This infrared work I've been doing recently has been very consuming.  In some instances it's like learning photography all over again.  I've commented before about slowing down and being more deliberate with my compositions, but there's a lot more stuff that happens before I press the shutter button.  For instance, I now have to focus twice.  Autofocus is awesome, but infrared light focuses at a different point than the normal visible spectrum.  That means, after finding a composition, you need to focus once for visible light, then make a manual adjustment for the IR light.  Not too difficult a task, but easily messed up or forgotten.  That's one of plenty of extra steps before making an exposure.  I have a list in my notebook so I don't forget them all.  Then there's a lot of decision making back in the studio.  That's what I'm going to show today.

First, let's look at the normal colour visible spectrum photograph.

I used a custom colour calibration profile for this camera and applied moderate capture sharpening and noise reduction.

This composition is headed to IR which will be monochrome, that's a decision I made standing in front of the tree.  Here's the B&W conversion of the full spectrum for later comparison.

I have a fairly complex method of combining individual RGB channels to create my B&Ws, however, in this case, isolating the Red channel was enough to give a satisfactory result.

Now on to the IR.  First up is the monochrome IR image straight from the camera.  You might notice that it's a bit red.

This is how the software I'm using to work on my photos interprets the IR files.  I apply the same custom colour calibration profile because it helps to produce smoother gradients later.  Sharpening and noise reduction will vary slightly from the full spectrum version due to the slower shutter speeds (this was 2 seconds).

If you want to throw a wrench in the soup, you could set the white balance of your camera to PRE and make an appropriate setting.  Then open the file in the software that came with your camera.

You may have noticed I've been calling the IR photos on this blog "false-colour IR".  Here's why;  The above image is was made by adjusting my camera's white balance until the live foliage recorded through my IR filter was white, or nearly white.  However, IR light isn't cyan, or what is that… beige?  What is happening here, is the light hitting the sensor is activating the red receptors, the green and blue aren't doing much and the white balance I set is trying to even all three channels out as best it can.  Well, IR is invisible to humans, and as such, it is colourless.  Believe me, the explanation gets longer and nerdier and less comprehensible, so we'll just stop there.  This result is kind of pleasing and good to know how to produce for future projects.

Anyway, I started out trying to get a black and white photograph using infrared light.  Using the red coloured image above I produced this conversion.

Getting here is a complex procedure.  I'm not sure why I wanted to try shooting infrared black and white photographs in the first place, but seeing this result, I recognize that this is how I see B&W images in my imagination.  I'm not saying that my imagination sees in infrared.  It's probably more about the stark contrast being achieved.

Hey… you wanna see somethin' really weird?

This is the negative image of the black and white IR above.  I find it almost equally interesting, but I haven't quite figured out why.

Being an artist means I can allow someone else to answer the question "why?".  Often, I am bound more by a need to suggest stories you can tell yourself.  I have made all the decisions about this photograph with the intent of allowing the viewer to recognizing themselves or someone they know in this tree.  In this case, a little juniper sits atop a hill, it's roots are showing.  This single tree stands beneath an empty sky as something dark and different approaches.