Still Journal :: #4. Digital Infrared Effect

Still Journal is a weekly digest of accumulated links, tutorials, news, tricks, ideas and creativity on the culture and art of modern photography.

Still Journal is currently on hiatus - hope to resume updates soon.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Truth About Digital Cameras | An experiment designed to blow the megapixel myth. A 13, 8 and 5-megapixel resolution photo, printed, and shown to a general audience to see if they could discern the difference.
blogs.nytimes.com

Kitschy souvenirs superimposed over tourist attractions | "Michael Hughes buys kitschy souvenirs that depict tourist attractions; then he brings them to the attractions they depict and photographs them superimposed over the bit of the attraction they depict."
flickr.com | via: boingboing.net

RSS-enabled Wi-Fi Digital Photo Frame | eStarling has released the perfect holiday gift to help you stay better connected to your loved ones. The first wireless digital photo frame that enables users to automatically update pictures via RSS feeds from several popular photo websites.
| via: slrtoday.com

Twin Peaks, WA | "I've been captivated by the world of Twin Peaks since 1989. In recent years, I've traveled to Washington and photographed as many of the original filming locations as I've been able to find. I'm happy now to share my images with you. Each still from Twin Peaks is followed by one of my photographs from the same filming location. "
intwinpeaks.blogspot.com

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

#4. Digital Infrared Effect

Creating a dramatic infrared effect in Photoshop.

Working with traditional Infrared film involves a lot of trial and error, not to mention special handling of the film. The ability to render this effect onto an existing photo can sometimes result in some interesting alternative views.

This weeks experiment is based on the instructions found in an excellent illustrated article at tutorialized.com:

Infrared photography (also referred to as just IR) has been around for many years, but now with digital photography and Photoshop, creating the effect digitally is on the top of a lot of people's photography effects wish lists. There are some third-party plug-ins you can buy that will give you pretty decent IR effects, but you don't have to go that route. You can create some amazing infrared effects, both black and white and color, from right within Photoshop using the Channel Mixer (which is what we're going to do in this tutorial).

The technique essentially consists of using the channel mixer adjustment layer to shift the blues (create black skies), then apply a diffuse glow effect to give it that surreal and dramatic look.

Conclusion
This is a great way to give a photo that unique Infrared look. Especially well suited to wide angle landscapes, but can be applied to any photo to give it a different take.

About The Photo
Taken at a cemetery on a small hill on the way to Awhitu, early last month.

Digital Infrared Photography; Imaging With Invisible Light (shutterbug.com)
Excellent illustrated feature from Shutterbug on Infrared, Digital IR and lighting.

Infrared Effect (Justin Hinchcliffe)
Another article, from Justin Hinchcliffe, using the same basic technique as the tutorialized.com article.

Amazing Infrared Effects (tutorialized.com)
The source tutorial for this article - uses channel mixer adjustment layer and diffuse glow to create the effect.

Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006

#16. Paranormal Blurry TV Effect
An effect frequently used and abused by horror/thriller films these days - now you can give your still images a spooky look.
View Technique

#15. That Cross-Processed look
Take a few years of a photograph and give it that nostalgic colour shift.
View Technique

#14. Soft Focus for Holiday Shots
The technique of applying Soft Focus to a photo is not just for portraits - give a dreamy look to your holiday photos.
View Technique

#13. Black & White Colour Overlay
A distinctive method of bringing out detail and depth in a photo.
View Technique

#12. Simulating Light Leaks
Another bygone characteristic of the film age that you can resurrect with a simple layer trick in Photoshop.
View Technique

#11. Creating dramatic skies.
Give your skies more punch with a simple Photoshop layer effect.
View Technique

#10. Vintage Film Effect
A quick and easy way to transform an image back in time with a vintage film effect.
View Technique

#9. Morning Light
Give a dazzling morning glow effect to a photograph.
View Technique

#8. Grunge Effect
Give an aged and grungy look to a photo.
View Technique

#7. Half Sepia Toning
Give a warm, yet grungy look to a photo by applying a half sepia effect.
View Technique

#6. Extreme Contrast (Faux Bleach Bypass)
Punch out the contrast and hold back the saturation of an image in this Faux Bleach Bypass technique.
View Technique

#5. Velvia Effect
Add subtle saturation and depth to bring out the best in a colour photograph.
View Technique

#3. Lens Blur (Selective Focus)
Give your action shots a visual boost with this selective-focus/lens-blur effect.
View Technique

#2. Ray of Light
Adding shafts of light to photos with a single light source.
View Technique

#1. Faux Lomo Effect
A modern digital approach to creating a traditional alternative process.
View Technique