Fall is perfect for infrared photography….

As summer winds down, we land leaf by leaf into fall, and it is yet another great time to photograph with an infrared converted camera. Consider converting an existing used camera or even a new converted camera from Life Pixel.    You can use coupon code DebAutumn for a discount. The textures of the leaves change from spring to fall, the leaves are beautiful, fall may be your last chance to photograph before winter! Fortunately for me, I live in Florida, and the weather is almost always nice and the trees are perfectly cooperative for infrared shooting. I wanted to give you a few hints to start. If your camera can’t hold a white balance setting after conversion, which is common, and everything looks pink or red, simply set your camera to shoot in black and white mode. It will make things immensely easier and since you are shooting in raw, it won’t matter.  You can address the issue to correct white balance in post processing  creating a custom camera calibration by downloading and using Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor.  The steps are very simple.

• Open your RAW file in Lightroom or ACR.
• Export a copy of the RAW file in Adobe DNG format (save as)
• Open the DNG file in the DNG Profile Editor application
• In the “Color Matrices” tab, move the temperature slider to around -85-100
• Name, save and export the new Camera Profile (NikonD810IR) for example
• Quit and re-launch ACR or Lightroom
• Select Profile, and choose your new infrared profile NikonD810IR
• Choose your new custom profile and tweak the white balance to suit your image.

This is all much easier than it sounds, and you only need to do it once. After your custom profile is installed, your previously populating images of magenta/red are no more!  Fall can provide fascinating opportunities for infrared photography. Enjoy!

Check out the November issue of Shutterbug Magazine for more information on infrared “The Other Available Light”  in my Creativity/On the Road series.