Digital Infrared Photography Photo Workshop

Chapter 5. SPECIAL EFFECTS FOR CREATIVE IN-CAMERA IMAGES

Now that you have tackled tricky exposures and creative compositions with your IR images, you are ready to move on to creating special effects. This is one of my favorite subjects. I'll show you how to work with your camera and lens to create impressive, one-of-a-kind effects that require little, if any, work in photo-editing software.

I'll cover photographing waterfalls in IR, and how to create the silky blur that beautifully conveys a sense of motion. Shooting through textured glass is a wonderful way to create artistic IR images, whether you are creating a mottled rain-streaked look, or a watercolor effect. Have you ever tried blending a color image with an IR image (5.1) for a hand-tinted look? Nighttime digital IR photography illustrates how you can transform a scene just by photographing at twilight or dark. I'll share with you how I created elegant IR photographs after dark by using a cross screen filter for creative effects.

Try a few of the special effects in this chapter with your digital IR photography to round out your compositions and explore creative opportunities. I'm sure you will be inspired to invent a few methods of your own.

LONG EXPOSURES

Long exposures can create artistic effects, and you can easily achieve them with IR photography. If you are using an IR filter on the lens (rather than using an IR-converted camera), exposure times will be longer given that less light reaches the image sensor. Therefore, ...