Friday, May 26, 2006

ABSTRACT FRIDAYS - In Infrared

23 Comments:

Blogger micki said...

I went to bed at quarter after 11. My son got up at 3:00. He stayed up the rest of the night. As I’m writing this, it’s almost 5:30 and he wants to do backflips off of his yoga ball while on the trampoline. (Something he’s very good at, by the way.) If he doesn’t go back to sleep by 6:30, I’ll keep him up all day, which really won’t be hard to do. This used to be his routine every night until he turned five. He actually survived for more than two and a half years on four to five hours of a sleep a night with no naps during the day.

Last night was our first night we could sleep with the windows open. Usually something we’ve been doing for six weeks at this time of year. Summer is officially here. It’s hot and humid, but I’m not turning the air conditioner on if I don’t have to. I had to keep the furnace on for too long this spring. I want a break from the electric bill charges. Although at 90F today and living next to the ocean, I think I might have to turn it on later this afternoon until the sun goes down tonight.

Today you get abstract and infrared all in one. This was the first exposure on the roll of film. When I shot this roll, I wanted to test two things. One, how intense would the effects be with both the polarizer and the red filter on the lens when shooting? The effects were wonderful, as you can see in this shot. I’ve never gotten a sky this dark with infrared before, but this was only my third roll, so that’s not saying much. Two, how should I focus? With the first roll, I used the #25 filter and after I would allow the camera to focus, I would switch over to manual and then refocus by turning the lens until I was on the infrared mark on the barrel. Sometimes that worked, and I got some really sharp photos, (which I’ve posted here in previous months.) Sometimes it didn’t work, and images were quite out of focus. For the second roll, most of my images were terribly out of focus. This time I tried something different I had read. I’d learned that if you’re shooting infrared, but not using a true infrared filter (which is very, very dark), then you may go ahead and use auto focus and shoot happily away with no adjustments necessary. Which I did. Every shot was in focus, so I’m a happy camper. I’ll be posting those images over time. I didn’t do much bracketing or double shots with this roll, so there are a lot of different photos to post.

As I feared, this was very difficult to scan in, as there was so much contrast between the white leaves and the dark sky. Some details were lost in the scan.

Spring Leaves and Blue Skies – In Infrared
Camera - Minolta Maxxum 7000
Film - Kodak HIE Infrared film
Shutter Speed - 1/20
Aperture Setting - f-11 Aperture Mode
Lens - Sigma 35-135mm @ 135
#25 Red Filter and Polarizing Filter
Scanning Method - My scan from my cheap little hp officejet 5510v all-in-one copy/scanner/faxer/printer

8:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, that's intense. Nice one.

8:38 AM  
Blogger Laurie said...

Cool, looks like a night shot, long exposure with spot lighting on the tree.

IR looks very interesting. I must try it some day. I was looking at some filters for it, but there are other things I need more.

8:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like the effect. IR is fascinating.

10:19 AM  
Blogger PlasticTV said...

At first look i thought it was window frost.

10:27 AM  
Blogger Dave MacIntyre said...

Very nice! I like your choice of framing position.

12:02 PM  
Blogger Naturegirl said...

Nice shot..and she sleeps with camera..on her mind.:) I hear you on turning air conditioner on I like to leave it off as much as I can stand..open windows with gentle breezes..ahhh!!

12:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

infrared rocks! well done!

3:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very nice effect. Would make a great book cover in my opinion.

3:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nicely done - great framing.

4:17 PM  
Blogger Sandy said...

Good job Micki. I've been wanting to give this a try also. Hey...how is the holga going?

5:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love how the sky turned out. Great framing and great photo!

6:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Truly abstract. I really kind of enjoy seeing the infrared shots as it is something that I've never done, or even seen much of.

By the way, it was interesting to read about your son and his sleep patterns. One thing I've noticed living in Korea is the lack (in my opinion) of sleep that the majority of the population lives, and seemingly thrives, on.

7:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

nice composition, lovely glow of hilight...very unique shotbeautiful:-))...i have to try infrared some day...really cool effect:-))

8:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's a certain special something about infrared. Less is more in this shot, I love it!

10:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lovely shot Micki, have a great weekend!

11:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very interesting photo. Almost looks like night (which tells me what you do when your son is doing backflips at 5:30 in the morning). I have never worked with infrared before. It looks intriguing.

1:21 AM  
Blogger Azhar said...

At first glance for 1/2 a second I thought it was snow on a tree lol : cool shot.
GREAT SHOT!

1:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

:) looks like a negative. Black and white, very interesting and unusual.

3:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ilike the way you are experimenting with different film, this is very interesting. Hope you enjoy the weekend. It's a holiday weekend here also but the weather doesn't look good for picnics (may be good for photography though!).

3:32 AM  
Blogger Brent Vermilyea said...

Azhar thinks it's snow on a tree; my first thought was it was a macro of a snowflake. either way, it's a brilliant little macro. God I love negative space! I'm going to do more negative space shots. Inspiration, micki. Thanks.

5:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

very nice work. nice light effect!
greets

6:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lovely capture... #25 Red looks good for this job..

10:37 PM  

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