There always seems to be a new "flavor of the month" in photography. Most recently, it seems to be a fascination with HDR (high dynamic range). I have to admit I have toyed with Photomatix, both to create unrealistic, but interesting images, and to use it for its more mainstream purpose of being able to capture both shadow detail and highlight detail in a scene that extends well beyond the eight or so stops of exposure that today's cameras can accommodate.
Another "flavor of the month" has been infrared images. I have never captured infrared images, either with film or digitally. That doesn't mean I don't find many of them to have an ethereal beauty. I just find enough to keep me occupied with more straightforward photography. What I discovered with the release of Lightroom 2.0 is a way to approximate the infrared look without using a number of steps in Photoshop (e.g., see Tim Grey's Photoshop-based approach at http://www.takegreatpictures.com/Articles/Details/params/object/12679/default.aspx).
Beginning with Lightroom 2.0, the Clarity slider has been revised to allow settings anywhere between -100 and +100, whereas in the earlier version, the slider only went from 0 to +100. The following three images, beginning with the original capture, through a conversion to black and white, and ending with a -100 Clarity adjustment, show the steps I take to create a pseudo-infrared image. This particular scene was captured in the Brazilian Amazon in April 2007.
To my eye, this last image has the same dreamy quality as a typical infrared image, but without much fuss in creating it. As would be expected, this simple technique doesn't work for all images, but if you are looking for an easy way to approximate the infrared effect, the Clarity slider pushed all the way to -100 may do just fine. Enjoy!
Next week: To Clone Or Not To Clone
Another "flavor of the month" has been infrared images. I have never captured infrared images, either with film or digitally. That doesn't mean I don't find many of them to have an ethereal beauty. I just find enough to keep me occupied with more straightforward photography. What I discovered with the release of Lightroom 2.0 is a way to approximate the infrared look without using a number of steps in Photoshop (e.g., see Tim Grey's Photoshop-based approach at http://www.takegreatpictures.com/Articles/Details/params/object/12679/default.aspx).
Beginning with Lightroom 2.0, the Clarity slider has been revised to allow settings anywhere between -100 and +100, whereas in the earlier version, the slider only went from 0 to +100. The following three images, beginning with the original capture, through a conversion to black and white, and ending with a -100 Clarity adjustment, show the steps I take to create a pseudo-infrared image. This particular scene was captured in the Brazilian Amazon in April 2007.
To my eye, this last image has the same dreamy quality as a typical infrared image, but without much fuss in creating it. As would be expected, this simple technique doesn't work for all images, but if you are looking for an easy way to approximate the infrared effect, the Clarity slider pushed all the way to -100 may do just fine. Enjoy!
Next week: To Clone Or Not To Clone
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