Digital Infrared

I've been a fan of infrared photography for a long time and knew it was possible to do it with digital cameras. But infrared with digital still had the same limitations as film in that it required long exposures due to the filter required, focus was a bit of guesswork because of infrared's different wave length, and results were inconsistant. Then I learned that you can have a digital camera converted to shoot infrared AND use it like a normal camera: no long exposures, autofocus, in camera metering (sort of). There is a company in Washington, LifePixel, that will convert your digital camera (either point and shoot or DSLR) to shoot infrared. It cost $350 to convert my Nikon D70.

The sensor in a digital camera is very sensitive to infrared light, so much so that manufacutrers install a filter over the sensor to filter IR out. LifePixel, in cleanroom conditions, will replace the "hot mirror" filter with an IR filter. And will calibrate your DSLR to any lens you send along. The results are quite stunning!



But even better is there is some color in these images. Of course its not accurate, but there is color that can be exploited. Here's a sample:



In this image I was able to color the sky blue in Photoshop by following a tutorial no the LifePixel website for Channel Mixing, then making a mask of the sky and using color balance to enhance the color that was there. This is one application, another is to use the colors as they exis to give a different feel to the image.



There is a lot I've learned in the two weeks I've had this. I'll be talking about what I've learned in future posts.

technorati registration

Technorati Profile

Pearl Dogs

Tonight at Pearl Real Estate I'm involved with a First Thursday event, Dogs in the Pearl. The Pearl is a very dog friendly place and the event is a bit of a celebration of that. The local animal hospital will be there as will several dog stores and me. I'm showing images from the May/June issue of Explore the Pearl. It was the pet issue so I've got more than enough (over 1000) shots of dogs. I've just finished putting together the slide show for the evening. Not too over whelm people, the show is a bit less than 50 slides and has a running time of 132 seconds.

I put the show together in iPhoto, which is great for just throwing something together but a bit tedious. Especially using the Ken Burns effect. Makes for an interesting slide show but tedious. Since I was sequencing several images of each dog, the motion allowed me to tell a little story with each sequence, adding a lot to the end result. Below is a link to the slide show on YouTube, have a look and let me know what you think.

Pearl Real Estate is located at the corner of Lovejoy and 14th, the event is from 6 - 8PM.

Sorry about the related video menu that pops up when you roll over the video. I'm searching how to turn it off. If anyone knows please tell me.

Creative Expression

This car was spotted parked near the Armory on Memorial Weekend, and shows why it pays to have a digital point and shoot in your pocket. I don't know why I like art cars, but I do. Its not quite in-your-face but it is anti $5K rims, hydraulics, jacked up, booming stereo with HDTV, toy loaded car where you spent more on the toys than you did the Toyota Corolla you stuffed them all in.

There is something much more basic and raw about gluing a bunch of thoughtfully organized crap on your car. I love ‘em. So I hope you can appreciate the following pictures.

Building Now Posts Coming Soon

Just putting this together, post will becoming soon.