A Mid-Day Shooting Suggestion: IR

About two years ago, I had my Canon SD800 converted to an IR-only camera. I jumped on a plane and did some shooting in Mono Lake, CA.

Sure, I also took my color digital SLR cameras (Canon 1Ds Mark III and 1D Mark II). I got up early and stayed out late to catch the beautiful light and colors of early morning and late afternoon with those cameras.

During the midday hours, when the light was too harsh for color landscape shots, I shot with my IR-only camera. Here's one of my favorite shots, taken at South Tufa.

The top shot is the original. The bottom shot is the same shot enhanced with Topaz Adjust - my favorite plug-in this week (as you might have guessed).

One of the cool things about IR cameras is that you can shoot all day without worrying about "bad" lighting – because you are recording IR light. Another cool thing is that you can create some beautiful landscapes pictures effortlessly - pictures with a dark sky and white clouds.

If you have an old camera hanging around, compact or SLR, consider converting it to an IR-only camera. Good fun for sure.

I found it interesting that after shooing IR for about a week, I started to "see" in IR.... picturing how a scene would look when photographed with my IR camera.

You can get a discount on your IR conversion from Lifepixel by using this code upon checkout: RickSammon.

You can order Topaz Adjust (and receive other discounts on certian plug-ins) on the Pluginexperience.

See the light - the IR light :-)
Rick