Figure 1: An infrared shot, with color channel edits (see text).
So, I’m not sure I mentioned it, but I’m a novice photographer, in terms of IR photography (and any other type of photography). What I’m discovering with the SD14 is that infrared is just another look. The light spectrum is different, so the “look” is too. The pedestal IR photograph typically has foliage that is white, but the white look is just a preference shown by many for that particular rendition style.
The photo in figure 1 was green when I started, but I adjusted the color channel values in gimp until I had the result shown. It was not particularly underexposed, but I wanted the “spooky” look – of the howling at the moon variety.
Figure 2: Same shot as figure 1, except de-saturated.
Figure 3: Color channel play
The color channel mixer is the playground for Gimp users when editing IR photographs. On the SD14, the only adjustment needed is the custom white balance setting, obtained by going to the menu and selecting “Get custom white balance.” The shots in figures 1-3 were taken after a custom white balance was obtained by pointing the camera at green foliage. The first few attempts to set it failed, but I kept doing it with slightly different angles and different focus points (not necessarily in-focus BTW).
After a custom white balance has been obtained, one can tell the camera to use that white balance by selecting the custom icon in the white balance menu which appears when the WB button on the back of the camera is pressed. It’s the icon with two triangles in it. WP recently started limiting the size of photos on pages, which is limiting. My original WP pages could display any size of photo. Given the new situation, I’ll have to find a photo-server I can link up with. Until then, there’s only the small pics – sorry for that.
The Sigma SD14 is a product of Sigma Corporation. Sigma and Foveon are their trademarks. This author and site has no affiliation with Sigma.
A Storm Of Photons 