IR Post Processing

[bburton]

Jerry Kneupper has just posted a wonderfully clear tutorial on "IR Post Processing" on his IR Blog:

http://irbuzz.blogspot.com/2007/04/p...-ir-image.html

Well worth the read: much good advice here on what is probably the most mysterious part of IR photography.

[jerrykr]

Thank you Bruce, coming from an educator, that is quite a compliment.



I hope it helps some people get started in IR Photography. I remember when I first started, I got a few shots and was at a loss as to what to do with them. I must have spent more than a few days searching around the internet for ideas on how to post process my new images.

Thanks!

[boogie]

Originally Posted by jerrykr

...I remember when I first started, I got a few shots and was at a loss as to what to do with them...

Thanks!

I was totally out of my mind when I first started. Didn't know where to start. Searched
for anything related to IR processing but in the end once you know the basics it's clear
sailing. (trust me...that took awhile).

Shucks...now it's a piece of cake after 4 years.

I've had more fun with IR this past year than I can remember...even playing in dirt.

[bburton]

Jerry, I've been following the steps in your IR workflow and definitely picked up some new tricks. However, I notice that you say nothing about IR "noise" which seems to be what I spend most of my post processing time on.

Any thoughts there? I'll tell one of my techniques: since IR noise is most pronounced in clear sky, I "lasso" the noisy parts and apply noise reduction selectively. If the noise is still evident, I use Gaussian Blur.

Anybody else can join in this thread with their tips re: IR noise.

Edit: Meant to attach this file which followed Jerry's workflow and my noise reduction technique.

[jerrykr]

Bruce,

Your end result here is certainly very good.

I don't really have too many tips to offer, other than try to get a good exposure when you take the shot. The skies tend to be under-exposed because there are so many other bright areas in the frame, so the dark areas can get noisy.

I learned to stay away from using "auto levels" as it seemed to bring up noise. I may have not been using it correctly, but I had seen others saying the same thing in forums.

you can also use the blur tool passing it over the sky area, but that's really no different than what you are already doing.

If you are getting the big blocky stuff in the sky, noise reduction many times won't smooth it out, as it's really not noise.

If you are going after a particular scene that you really want badly, and are willing to spend some time on it, use a tripod, and take a 3 shot burst. You may or may not want to vary the EV during the burst. Then layer the shots in Photoshop. Since the noise is randon, the layered result will tend to have the noise smoothed out. You can't just use multiple layers of the same image, as the noise will line up layer to layer. Maybe process them using HDR?

Just a few thoughts (and no real solutions).