Lauren Heerschap
June 2021 - Presidents in Blue
About the Image(s)
I just recently had a camera converted to infrared, and I am taking a short class on the topic. We went on a road trip to South Dakota, and so here is an infrared version of Mt. Rushmore. I titled it , “Presidents in Blue”. After this year’s pandemic, it about summarizes my national feelings. I am finding that infrared will show the cracks and texture in stone much better.
Taken on a Olympus OMD Mark 2, converted by Life Pixel to infrared 590 filter (which allows for some color). I channel swapped the blue and red colors in Photoshop to return the sky to blue. I also used the sliders in Lightroom for color to tweak the blue in their faces. ISO 200, 40 mm, f 8.0, 1/125 sec.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
10 comments posted
Hi Lauren, Great interpretation! At first I thought it was a fall picture in realistic color. Even though I'm very familiar with IR, I was initially fooled because I wasn't expecting IR! The color contrast between the trees and rock/sky makes the picture. The lighting is very good and IR helps define the rock texture as you noted. It's a beautiful image.
I purchased the Super Color and Super Blue filters from LifePixel and am also experimenting with color added IR as well as pure monochrome IR. More to come. Karl Posted: 06/09/2021 09:46:23
I purchased the Super Color and Super Blue filters from LifePixel and am also experimenting with color added IR as well as pure monochrome IR. More to come. Karl Posted: 06/09/2021 09:46:23
I highly recommend an IR workshop online by Derrick Story. He has created a community of IR shooters, and a forum to post online photos of both monochrome and color IR. I have more to come of monochrome conversions too. Posted: 06/13/2021 10:16:40
Hey Carl, check out the class on Infrared by Derrick Story. He is the infrared guru and the class lets you into a community of people shooting infrared. Just google his name. Posted: 06/20/2021 15:22:20
It's a great photo, to start, and I agree it shows the cracks in the rocks well. I like the composition and the demonstration of the lead up and trees before the presidents. I'd never seen that before. Were the trees really orange, or was that the IR? I found it intriguing to study. Posted: 06/12/2021 23:45:06
The trees were not really orange. That is a result of the IR and processing. Posted: 06/13/2021 10:17:28
Wonderful image! The facial features really do stand out here. The rust-colored trees look beautiful against the blue grey stone, and that powder blue sky is great. The image is very pleasing to view. Posted: 06/14/2021 11:46:46
This is marvelous! The complementary colors and the composition are gripping. IR certainly worked to your advantage here.
Not sure about this, but I find the wispy cloud top right distracts a little from the Presidents'faces. Posted: 06/15/2021 19:41:32
Not sure about this, but I find the wispy cloud top right distracts a little from the Presidents'faces. Posted: 06/15/2021 19:41:32
Freddie, it would be a very boring world. If we will agree on everything. To my eye that wispy cloud adds just enough balance to the otherwise empty space. IOW without that wisp of a cloud, I think that there would be too much negative space. Posted: 06/20/2021 15:14:17
Loren, beautiful image. I love your composition and the color you have achieved. Several years ago I converted an old Nikon Coolpix, simply by removing the IR filter. it works nicely at a wavelength of 720. Your image has convinced me to have another camera converted at about 520 or 540. Now of course my problem is which lens do I send to them for a focus adjustment. Also, I don't have the confidence that my hands are still steady enough to do that procedure. It's like getting a hole-in-one in golf. I know what to do, but I simply can't do it myself. Posted: 06/20/2021 15:08:22
I would highly recommend Life Pixel or Kohlari to do the camera conversion. Their price is reasonable. I am also happy with a workshop instructor and Infrared class by Derrick Story. Just google his name. He is starting an infrared shooting community where you can get feedback from the class, somewhat like this only on infrared. I'm also looking into the PSA infrared groups. Posted: 06/20/2021 15:20:16