Tried shooting IR Macro. Here's the result.

Don't know why, but at ISO200 after pp so much noise is introduced into the pic. Anyone has an explanation?

Flower is originally white, background leaves as usual are green. Bright sunlight was falling on the plant.

Shot wide open with the kit lens for shallow DOF with flash to fill in shadows in the middle of the flower.

(IMG:http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y245/teerex/DSC_macro800.jpg)

Hi Teerex,

This looks like a black and white. Which method did you use to make it greyscale/monochrome?

A straight desaturation has the tendency to make IR shots very grainy, possibly caused by excessive blue interference. A better option is to use the channel mixer to strip the blue channel (assuming you did not do a RB channel swap).

Converting it to monochrome using the channel mixer may cause this too if the wrong channel is used, for example using the blue channel instead of red from a non-RB-channel swapped photo or using the red channel after the photo has had a RB-channel swap.

The graininess may also be caused by the software's attempt to brighten up a dark background to match a brighter foreground.

Still, I think the image is acceptable, given the inherent grainy nature of IR photography. However, if you really want to, you could apply a noise reduction to the photo, like this:

(IMG:http://www.pbase.com/image/45205067/original.jpg)

Might be a little smooth for some.

Cheers,

Matt

Thanks Matt,

Ya, it sure looks like BnW. I did RB swap, but not 100%, used different values. Then in Hue/Saturation, brought the red down to make the flower white.

Thanks for your explanations on the possible causes of graininess in the pic.

I already did some noise reduction with USM on the pic. Perhaps should have tried using Neat Image.

But then with some grain and in BnW, it does give a feel of film

Can you reccommedn how you would process the pic. Here's the original, but resized.

(IMG:http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y245/teerex/DSC_9318800.jpg)

Hi Teerex,

Sorry about not getting back sooner, I've been tied up at work too much recently.

About the photo, I've done some basic stuff to it but it is quite limited as the size prevents better sharpening and the 8bit depth prevents me from extracting more details from the shadows. If you had an NEF, you might email it to me at 1dead.pixel@gmail.com.

In post processing this photo, here's what I did:

1. Create 3 layers, firstly a Hue/Saturation layer, secondly a Channel Mixer layer and finally a Levels layer.

2. Modify the red hue to +35 and red saturation to -30 (in the adjustiment layer).

3. Modify the channel layer to reduce red to 10, green to 200 and blue to 100.

4. Modify the levels channel to brighten highlights, darken mid-tones for smoother shadow transitions.

5. Sharpen only the flower (USM, step back and re-apply USM with the History brush)

6. Reduce noise (use a Noise Reduction (NR) tool) in the background (NR, apply History brush to remove NR from flower)

7. Some minor tweaking.

With macro photography, a cluttered background will draw attention away from the main subject, so it is best to either compose a tight shot or crop destracting elements away. In composing or cropping the photo, remember to use lines/curves to draw attention from the sides and corners to the heart of the photo. Here's one try with cropping:


(IMG:http://www.pbase.com/image/45257574/original.jpg)

Another approach would be to frame the main subject with a blurred/darker boarder:

(IMG:http://www.pbase.com/image/45257576/original.jpg)


These are just some quick suggestions. If I was to take more time I might come up with something better.

Cheers,
Matt

P.S. - Whoops! looks like I made the photos a little too dark. Oh wait, it's not me, it's the web compression that's causing it to darken.



This post has been edited by deadpixel on Jun 25 2005, 11:08 AM

Hey Matt, thanks. Appreciate you taking the time to help and advise on how to post process that pic.

Will try your reccemendations on the workflow.

Sorry don't have NEF file for that pic, 'cos it was shot in jpeg. Using a blur border is a good idea to capture viewer's attention into middle of the frame. I tried radial blur and it's not bad.

Thanks again.