Country Church -- 6 photos (IR) [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

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Don Ellis

10th of January 2004 (Sat), 04:44

These are six scenes from a country churchyard in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England. One of the charms of the churches we saw in England were the graves surrounding them, their antiquity, and the fact they’d been allowed to tilt and tip and crack and decay as a natural event.

This is the first view we had of the churchyard and the graves across a canal...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/cemetery1.jpg

We walked around in front of the church, undecided about whether to try the gate, when I pushed it and found it open...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/cemetery2.jpg

Turning left, we saw this huge tree and large headstone creating a tunnel to the light beyond...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/cemetery3.jpg

Around the corner of the church, we came to the grave of the two Lucys. The first Lucy Barrett died age 13 in 1854, and her sister Lucy died nine years later in 1863. Thinking about this, I decided that the family wouldn’t name two living girls Lucy, so perhaps after the first Lucy died, they named a new daughter Lucy in her memory. If true, the second Lucy died age eight or younger... perhaps there was a third Lucy who went on to live a long, healthy life...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/cemetery4.jpg

This is the most human-like tree I’ve ever seen and we took several photos because we were so enchanted... as is the tree, no doubt...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/cemetery5.jpg

And finally, the perfect resting place... sheltered beneath a solitary tree...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/cemetery6.jpg

Here’s to a long life...

Don

marie

10th of January 2004 (Sat), 05:19

wow wow and wow again

they are just super Don

the first shot, the magic (because of infrared) of that (weeping willow .... ? ) tree and the reflection ( a canal I think )
and the most beautiful clouds above
all add to the atmosphere .

to me these are the best shots ever you posted (infrared)
and that says a lot because they are all always so good.
but I particulary love the look of these. maybe its the content.

the Lucy story is a thinking one. so many children died very young in those times

the picture of the tree and the headstone with the light path in between is beautiful

and I can't believe that face on the tree :)
its 'amost' the very same as the one in the garden here
:lol:
they are all over the place. faces on the trees :roll:
its a beautiful picture showing the gravestone cross right opposite the tree

the tower shot is another lovely shot.
and the last picture is everyones dream (maybe ) of a beautiful place to be laid to rest (especially for those coming after us to have peace just being there and resting by it.
somehow it reminds me of the verse in the film starring virginia mc kenna ''to carve her name with pride'
the secret code ..it was a beautiful verse.
some will remember it .
I know it , however I won't put it here :roll:
but your picture reminded me of it for some reason.
such a beautiful verse seemed wasted when used just as a code in the film :lol: but thats exactly 'why ' I suppose (an unlikely code which wouldn't be broken too easily.... during the war )

they are absolutely beautiful photographs Don.
'grave matters' :D
thank you

marie

neil_r

10th of January 2004 (Sat), 07:22

robekert

10th of January 2004 (Sat), 15:46

BCdives

10th of January 2004 (Sat), 19:12

Don, I only WISH I could take shots like that, really wonderful.

Cheers,

BC

CyberDyneSystems

10th of January 2004 (Sat), 19:33

Blown away again :!:

Fantastic... I love the gnarled tree with the head stone..

Beautifull images.

Don Ellis

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 00:11

wow wow and wow again

they are just super Don

to me these are the best shots ever you posted (infrared)

marie

High praise, Marie... thank you. (Proving once again how hard it is to be a judge of how your work with affect anyone -- I would have classed most of these as more ordinary.)

The tree was very unusual... so here's a close-up of it...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/cemetery7.jpg

Thanks very much for all your comments.

Don

Don Ellis

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 00:16

All great shots Don. I like the "Lucys" shot best. It must be all of the textures. The window, in the center, sucks you into the composition.

Just wondering. What does your wife do when you are shooting? Is she right next to you? Are you lagging behind, or off on your own.

Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks very much... the Lucy photo was the last one I "developed" and it turned out much better than I expected... which was pleasing because it was a fairly arresting sight when I was in the churchyard.

Leela is usually wandering within eyesight with her G5... she knows that photographers make terrible companions, so we tend to go someplace and photograph what we like without constantly saying, "Look here" or "Did you see that?" Attached but separate, until we finally leave together to visit the nearest pub (which is where Leela took this shot of me looking much better than the tree)...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/don_pub2.jpg

Cheers,

Don

Don Ellis

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 00:20

Don, I only WISH I could take shots like that, really wonderful.

Cheers,

BC

You can, BC... it all starts to fall in place after the first 50,000 shots... ok, maybe not "all," but some things. :)

Thanks a lot.

Don

Don Ellis

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 00:22

Blown away again :!:

Fantastic... I love the gnarled tree with the head stone..

Beautifull images.

CDS... you are too kind. Thank you. I posted a close-up of the tree for you and Marie.

Cheers,

Don

tobbi

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 00:34

Don Ellis

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 00:36

Don,

These really are wonderful, and if they are the result of a freezing bus ride, then IMHO it was well worth it.

I am not sure if you have already posted one but I would love an “idiot’s guide” to shooting IR.

Cheers

Neil

Hi Neil,

This was a different day, so it was the result of a freezing walk rather than a ride. I don't know if I've posted a guide to IR, but a lot of it depends on your camera and its sensitivity to infrared.

I think you're shooting a 10D and I'm using a G1. I don't know how sensitive the 10D is to infrared or what its particular characteristics or limitations are.

With my own experience, I can only comment on the G1, which is the best of the G-series cameras for infrared.

In its unmodified form, you use an adapter (Lensmate, for example) to mount a Hoya R72 near-infrared filter (the most popular IR filter for most cameras from all I read). The "near-infrared" designation means that some visible light will get through, which can result in some interesting "false color" patterns.

Then you get yourself a tripod, because your fastest shutter speed is going to be about 1/20th of a second on the brightest day.

Photos with auto white balance will result in purple- or orange-toned photos which can be kept or grayscaled to eliminate the color -- http://www.kleptography.com/gallery-ir.htm

An alternative (better) approach is to shoot in RAW and convert to TIF in BreezeBrowser using a custom white balance (a matter of clicking on any medium gray in the photo). This will often give you striking false-color patterns on the foliage -- http://www.kleptography.com/irsingles-village-officeview1864.htm or http://www.kleptography.com/gallery-irbali.htm

The camera I'm now using is a G1 whose hot mirror (infrared cut filter) has been replaced with clear optical glass. The result is a dedicated infrared camera with closer-to-normal shutter speeds, allowing handheld infrared photography. A couple of other photographers on this forum, Robert Eckert and Mitch, have had their G1s modified as well.

Once I modified mine, I found that some of the localized green false-color tones I was getting on foliage were lost, replaced with an overall greenish hue. I didn't find this very exciting, so I replaced the Hoya R72 with a B+W 093 true infrared filter which produces almost completely black-and-white photos with greater contrast.

That's what I used to take these photos.

Not an "idiot's guide" so much as a quick overview. If you have other questions, I'd be happy to answer them... and some of the gallery notes on my website discuss infrared as well... www.kleptography.com.

Cheers,

Don

Don Ellis

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 01:06

Man, I just love these IR shots. I feel they are even better than many of their film counterparts. Coming to this site only a couple of days ago all I want to do now is try some IR shots out on a clear and crispy day here in Iceland with lots of snow in the lava. Can't imagine it to be anything but beautiful.

Good luck... I hope to see the results someday.

Are there any tips and tricks to IR photography? Different metering, compensation or and post processing techniques? Are IR filters very different from each other and so on? I've been doing some research on the internet but haven't found any digital specific details, if it is any different at all.

I don't know what camera you're using, so I can only give you some general guidelines and clues to what I do. Some of these are in my reply to Neil, especially about filters, so I won't repeat that.

Exposure: I set my exposure compensation anywhere from -1/3 to -2, depending on sun conditions. With bright sunlight on foliage, you can get overexposure just as easily as you can with color -- and once you've blown the highlights you'll never get them back. I can imagine that would be especially true with ice and snow; in the beginning, you may want to bracket.

On my Canon G1 (modified or unmodified, doesn't make a difference), I use P (program) mode, exposure compensation (as above), and auto-focus... never manual focus.

Once you've gotten over the thrill of white plants and black skies, you'll realize that composition is still king when it comes to your final photo. Having said that, white plants and black skies and bulky buildings are interesting, otherworldly elements, and I find that some of my favorite shots combine all these elements. In other words, don't just shoot a white forest or a big building or a dark sky by itself... try to get two or more of these elements in the same photo to juxtapose the expected with the unexpected, infrared-reflective beside non-reflective components.

Since you just arrived, I'll tell you there are more infrared galleries on my website -- http://www.kleptography.com -- along with a few notes. And there are "line galleries" that are easy to overlook since they're linked with words rather than thumbnail photos; they are some of my recent work.

Jeremy McCreary has an informative resource at http://www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw/ir.htm. Jeremy is in need of money to keep his website going, so you might want to look at the homepage first -- http://www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw

Absolutely beautiful photos Don E. The blacks in these photos I lust for. To all you IR shooters out there, thanks for introducing me ;)

Tobbi G.

Regarding the blacks, I'll share a secret here... once I modified my G1 by taking out the infrared cut filter, the resulting photos had lower contrast and were somewhat bland. I boosted the contrast in Photoshop, but still wasn't entirely satisfied.

I then moved to the B+W 093 true infrared filter which gives me much deeper blacks and greater contrast. I accentuate this effect with strong negative exposure compensation, usually -1 at least. And then I sometimes duplicate the layer in Photoshop, set layer mode to Multiply, and adjust the opacity of the layer to further drop the blacks into an unfathomable abyss.

While some people worry about loss of detail in shadows, I tend to shove it there. It's one more way to focus attention on what's important -- and details often aren't, especially in terms of mood.

Again, good luck with your own experiments.

Don

tobbi

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 01:24

Don Ellis

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 01:36

Thank you so much for that post. Both your reply to me and Neil were very informative. Can't wait to start it. Hope you don't mind, but I copied your text to my computer to review at a later date (more specifically, when I get the IR filter).

Btw, I have the EOS 300D with the supplied lens kit and two other lenses from my EOS 1.

Reg,

Tobbi G.

No, take that off your computer NOW! (Joking :p)

One of the tricks you can try -- not reliable, but indicative -- is to shine a TV or stereo remote control at your lens, snap the shutter, then see if there is a bright light in your photo. If so, you stand a reasonable chance of taking IR photos. (You can also ask on this forum or one of the others whether anyone has some specific advice about the 300D.)

If a camera shop is nearby and willing and stocking IR filters (a lot of ifs there), you can ask if you can take a few photos in their shop and then go home and see the results before you invest the money.

Just a couple of thoughts. I have a feeling the "ask 300D owners" suggestion is best.

Cheers,

Don

Ballen Photo

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 02:04

Don, Great stuff here. I think Grave yards and infra Red seem to work well giving them that surreal look. Nice work.
........Bruce

marie

11th of January 2004 (Sun), 02:56

Thanks Don .
and for the close up of the tree.
I saw a different face on it in the other picture. this looks like a donkey.
amazing. how they can appear .

I read every bit of all your advice to everyone here and I too will illegally put it away somewhere on the computer,
as will many others I would think :)
what a heavy lot to think of and appreciate even more now knowing all of what could be involved.
the brain will explode.
but I won't be going down that road just yet ( the infrared one )

the first and the last shots of this lot I like best.
I know I said the post's pictures were the very best of your infrared shots so far
but thats because these are the latest 'in my face ' so to speak
and so they seem extra good.
and it is because of the content .....a grave yard (as we call them over here) is perfect for infrared (seeing them like this)
as graveyard shots can be very dull sometimes.
and the two combined bl/wh and morbid (maybe) but magically lit up by infrared, thats what makes the difference.
I have always been taking shots in burial grounds over many years. not planning it, just happen to.
so love to see them turn out so lovely, like this.
the shapes of the trees stand out so well. they are wonderful, especially in the last shot (and the first)
look at those beautiful wonderful twisted old branches in the last shot. again its the infrared showed them up so well .
and the beautiful willow would never have looked like that (a winter shot of it ) without infrared's 'glow'. its a wonderful sight.

I can't see the feather any more in that other lovely shot ?
it would have been completely lost in infrared :)
I know a person shot like this is not a suitable subject for infrared and the feather would not have had a hope :roll:
( but it seems it had'nt now anyway ) :?
I liked it.
maybe its just moved over a little as its a slightly different picture

I wanted to say also that the light over the church gate is so unusual also.
many more things we see later when looking at pictures after remarking on them initially.

thanks again
marie