Dog Walker

I took the 1200D full spectrum and R72 IR filter for another walkabout. This time through the back of the churchyard and then across the street to Old Mill Lane. I took lots of photographs but for now here is the one I personally like best.



I have always liked this view with the trees standing out against their surroundings. I happened to take this shot just as a dog walker and his three dogs were approaching them. That, for me, put the finishing touch to the composition. I cropped out some of the insipid looking sky.

I case you were wondering - no it hasn't been snowing. The usual practice when taking photographs with an IR filter is to photo an area of grass and set the camera to use that as a reference for white balance. Hence grass and similar shows up as white.

IR and Clouds

How time flies. It is seven years since I purchased a Canon 1200D which had been modified for full spectrum photography. That means the IR cut filter which is normally installed on the sensor was removed and replace with clear optical glass. The camera now responds to light from near UV through the rainbow colours and into some of the IR spectrum. Previously I had used the camera as supplied, without any added filters. For IR photography it helps a great deal to add an IR pass filter to the lens. To that end I now have a R72 filter which passes light from about 720nm. The results? Great for producing B/W (grey scale) photos.

The photos are taken in RAW format and processed using Affinity Photo. First a photo which has had the colour saturation upped to maximum and clarity boosted:



The rest have had the colour saturation reduced to -100 and clarity boosted:











All taken along my lane today. Lots of Sunshine (needed with an R72 filter) and some decent cloud formations. The main problem when trying to frame the photos is the R72 doesn't let light through that the viewfinder can see so I cannot use the camera viewfinder. More a point and hope exercise. Once taken the photo can be seen on the LCD screen so a quick check can be made on the final result.

Full Spectrum

These photos were taken with a camera which has no filter in front of the image sensor, just plain glass. That way it responds to the full visible range from UV to IR:






Finally for the 2nd photo I used the channel mixer in Affinity Photo to make separate adjustments to Red, Green and Blue levels:



Almost an 80's postcard effect.

Walkies

Some photos taken with the modified 350D on a walk along a narrow pubic footpath:











Each had a slightly different amount of processing to try to bring out the best.

Wordless Wednesday

The Boss in IR

The Old Post Office - IR

The building furthest away used to be the village Post Office and general store before it closed about 8 years ago when the number of local P.O.s was reduced before selling off part of the publicly owned postal service. Without the income from the Post Office the shop was no longer viable. A great loss to the village as Denis and Marian, the husband and wife who ran the shop, are two of the most pleasant and helpful people you could wish to meet. Nothing was too much trouble for them. On top of that we also lost a meeting place where up to date local information and gossip was exchanged. How to kill off the heart of a village in one easy step. We are fortunate to have a Londis store, convenient for many items but not really a heart and soul of the village type of establishment.

Photo taken in IR with the modified 350D.
Straight from the camera:



HDR enhanced version:



Converted to grey scale:

Modified Canon 350D

The modified Canon 350D body I ordered from Romania arrived in double quick time. Posted in Romania on Monday and delivered here on Thursday. Some of our local mail takes longer than that. To recap, the internal manufacturer's filter which cuts out IR was changed for one which allows IR through. Then the focussing has to be recalibrated as IR light focusses at a slightly different point. Gave it a quick trial to make sure everything was working properly. As with the Fuji IS-1 the photos taken can look a little bland:



This one was processed using the Mac app Simply HDR to improve detail and contrast:



As I think the telephone wires detract I used the Inpainting Brush in Affinity Photo to remove them:

Fuji IS-1 (part 1)

It seems a long while since I took the IR Fuji out for a session.
For infra red b/w it's best when Sunny with some decent cloud formations
Over the next few posts I will put up some of the results taken using an R72 IR filter.
This one was is from the end of my lane:

Cloudy Day

Yesterday there were plenty of clouds racing across the sky so I set up the Fujifilm IS-1 with the 720nm IR filter and left it taking one photo every 6 seconds until the batteries ran out. Total taken - 910 shots batch converted to greyscale with Irfanview and dropped en masse in trakAxPC, titles and soundtrack added:

CLOUDS

Clouds are very clever things
They aren't held up with hooks or strings
They have no wings to help them fly
They simply hang there in the sky
George Ansell  from Poems for Kids

The setup:
Camera on a sturdy tripod.
Home brew intervalometer powered by 12V battery on the table:

Seeing Red

This must be from the very bottom of the Round Tuit pile. For many, many years I have wanted to be able to experiment with Infra Red photography. Long ago I actually bought a roll of 35mm IR film but never got round to using it for several reasons. More difficult to focus. Old lenses had two focus scales, one usually a red line for focussing IR. Unable to see the results until after processing. Few places where IR film could be processed.

At least 35mm, and other film sizes, could take IR. The vast majority of digital cameras have a filter built in to cut out the IR part of the spectrum. It is a case of stripping down the camera and replacing the filter or sending the body away to have it done professionally - at a price!

I say the vast majority as a few digital cameras have been made which were specially designed to be able to respond to the infra red part of the spectrum. One such was the Fujifilm IS-1 which was originally made for use by police forces and such like to photograph evidence. Their availability, only second hand, is scarce so when one became available a few days ago I jumped at the chance to get my sticky fingers on it.



The camera has a 28-300mm (35mm equivalent) f2.8-4.9 zoom lens. It came complete with a set of filters, three to let through various wavelengths of IR, one to block UV and IR so normal colour photos can be taken, and a couple of others. The following were taken with the middle range IR filter which looks completely black to the human eye and can be seen on the above photo.

The following are paired photos. First as taken by the Fuji followed by a greyscale version:













As a quick trial these were only given a minimal seeing to in Irfanview.
The only problem is it uses AA batteries and as with many of its age these don't last anywhere near as long as modern Lithium Ion cells