The Repairman - Knocking sense into people is my curse.

It's finally out! This issue is truly packed with great photography and tips. I'm proud and honored to have been part of it among the ranks of Jay Jallorina, Bernard Billedo and Edwin Martinez. Also, for Infrared photography enthusiasts, there may be some good reading inside. ;)

Thanks DPP and to my colleagues and friends who helped in making this issue as good as it is. Love lots!

It's been a year since I bought my very own digital slr. Getting into photography has probably made the biggest impact on my life. I've been and went to places I never would have gone to if I didn't have a dslr. Amid shooting in torrential downpour, crashing waves, freezing temperatures, searing heat and whatnot, the K10D is still alive.

This is a repost from DPP since my image host is going bonkers right now.

An IR filter is a nearly opaque glass filter which filters out nearly all visible light and lets through a certain wavelength of Infrared light.

For example, the Hoya R72 Infrared filter will let through anything above 720nm in wavelength. Anything under that rating, won't reach the sensor. In relation, visible light, or the light that we can see is at a wavelength of 400nm - 700nm. Below or above that is invisible to us. So infrared photography is just like photographing the invisible.

Anything that is reflecting or emitting a high amount of infrared will be white in an infrared exposure. The lower the IR the darker the image will be. IR does not generally work at night, indoors, nor in deep shadow as there is no Solar IR present. Though an electric coil stove does emit IR hehe. A bright sunlit scene is best for IR photography.

Requirements for filter based Infrared Photography:

1. Always use RAW. JPEG isn't as favorable in adjusting white balance.
2. Use a tripod, mirror-up and a cable release. Long exposures tend not to be sharp especially in windy conditions. Some cameras do permit handheld IR like the Pentax K100D and Nikon D40, but using a tripod is better  because you can use the lowest ISO since high ISO's at long exposures introduces a lot of noise and hotpixels (I don't use in-camera noise reduction). Or atleast the highest ISO with an acceptable noise output if you're in a hurry.
3. For colored infrared photography: There is a strict white balance requirement. A custom white balance on something sunlit green is your target here. Avoid dark greenish and shadowed grass. A big yellow-green leaf is recommended like a banana tree's leaf.
4. For Black & White Infrared: The above will work but a Tungsten white balance preset will do well too since it will output a reddish image but not as red as Auto White Balance. Just apply a Black & White adjustment layer with a blue, green, or red filter (or whatever works) in Photoshop and you're done.
5. If your camera takes super long exposures for IR. Use the viewfinder cap! Light can leak through the viewfinder especially with Pentaprism based cameras causing colored streaks to show up in your images.
6. After composing your shot. Try to focus manually before putting the IR filter and take an image with the IR filter on. Then try focusing with the IR filter on. Some lenses with the IR filter on causes a big focus shift. So test out which one is better for you. Using the hyperfocal point of your lens is also recommended.

Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee that this workflow will work as stated with other brands and models except for the Pentax K10D and the Hoya R72 IR filter. Different cameras and models have different exposure times. Though, the Pentax K10D has a similar (loooooooong) exposure time with the Nikon D80 (as tested with Jetty Remigios' D80) and I assume the same goes with Sony A100 and Nikon D40x since they all use the same 10mp Sony CCD sensor. The Pentax K100D and the Nikon D40 also use the same 6mp Sony sensor and they also seem to have similar exposure times for IR capable of handheld shooting. I haven't used the Cokin yet so I can't be sure of the output too.

Here is the workflow I did for the AWM Tree:

Shot #1

Shot #2



By the way, with long exposure IR cameras like the K10D and D80, you have to place the viewfinder cap to avoid light leaks coming from the viewfinder. I didn't know this at the time and as you can see, there are horizontal color banding in the above pictures.

Now for the Wawa and La Mesa IRs, this is the workflow I used on all of them:

As you can see from my images, I generally go for the peachy colored trees instead of pure white ones to get a difference in contrast with the clouds and skies. If you want whiter plants, just adjust or add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and make change the Reds to a 0% saturation. Or use Selective Color. You can also adjust the saturation in ACR beforehand.

I hope someone finds this helpful. Thank you for reading!

Here are some resources for other IR workflows:
http://dpfwiw.com/ir.htm
http://www.lifepixel.com/digital-infrared/digital-infrared-photography-instructions.html
http://www.lifepixel.com/videos/basic-infrared-photoshop-info.html
http://www.xdeltax.com/infrared/index.html
http://www.wmphotos.com/Links/8a-Nikon%20D100.htm
http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_IR_rev00.html

PS. Please forgive the grammatical errors above, editing, resaving and reuploading the images is quite cumbersome. :[