Infrared Clouds

Infrared Clouds

Every so often I'll look out my window and see a shot that works for X kind of processing or method, or kind. When I shot this a couple weeks ago I looked out my window and saw great big white clouds with a deep blue sky backdrop that I knew would work for some dramatic looks if shot in infrared. And I wasn't disappointed. Take a look at the RAW color, the in camera B&W conversion, and a quick HDR'd version and see for yourself:

RAW, In-camer B&W, and HDR'd

In each of the "natural light" versions above the clouds look flat and listless, nothing how I remember seeing them. It was almost as if the clouds overwhelmed the camera sensor. Looking over the shots from that day I remember being disappointed when I ran across the color RAWs and camera B&Ws  and was preparing for more disappointment when I got to the shots with the IR filter on. I like to try and take a number of shots in the natural light before putting the IR filter on just because it's annoying to screw on and off the filter. Lazy? Yes.

When I got to the orangish/reddish IR shots I knew I had something. I have given up on faux color IR conversions at this point with the 720nm filter, as I find the shots just not rich enough in color to make them interesting to view, but with a little work this filter and black & white work really well together. A little work in Black & White Effects and I got an image that I was really happy with.