Seattle in Infrared - C&C welcome

[Momo]

And now time for something completely different...

Here's a photo I made this afternoon of downtown Seattle in infrared. It was made using my Nikon D5100 with a Hoya R72 filter. The camera was mounted to a sturdy tripod. But, sadly, I was standing on a bridge that would vibrate as the cars and more heavy buses would go by. So, it's not as sharp as I would like. To compound the sharpness issue, I had to guess on the focus, as you cannot look through an IR filter. (blocks almost all visible light ) The focusing is a nightmare, as infrared light focuses at a different point than visible light and that point also changes with focal length. Yay! My trick is to compose with the lens off, focus, attach the filter, and turn off auto-focus, and then tweak the focus slightly... I think... counter-clockwise as I stand behind the camera.

I sent my fossilized Sony a-100 in for an IR conversion by LifePixel. I chose their supercolor IR filter and figured I could always dial it back in Photoshop if needed. I should get that back soon and hopefully that will improve my IR and focusing issues!

[Steve S]

Very well composed for a busy scene. The bright foreground grabs your attention and the curved ramp leads the eye into the scene. I'm not a big fan of IR photos, but this one is nicely done.

[jeeperman]

Nice capture Darren. That is a favorite spot of mine to shoot from, well very close anyhow. Nice work.

[Jack R Mann]

Nicely done i sometimes miss that area, until i have to drive,mid day and no traffic ir must get rid of them?

[Momo]

@ Steve S: Thank you. IR is really starting to grow on me. It's not for everyone though. I guess, just like HDR and B/W photography.

@ jeeperman: Thanks, Jeep. It's a fav of mine as well. I was on my way to Glazer's and thought I'd stop for some shots. Out of all the gabillions of photos I have seen from this vantage point, I have never seen one photo taken in IR.

@ Jack: Thank you. Trust me, traffic was pure hell. It was bumper to bumper crawling traffic for miles. For those not familiar with the area, I-5 runs left to right in this image. It was jam packed. I am standing above the ramp from I-5 to eastbound I-90. The 20 second exposure cancelled out most of the traffic. In addition to several IR shots, I also broke out my 9 stop ND filter to see how that cancelled out the cars. It worked well for the most part.

[Momo]

Okay, so, for some wild comparison, here are a couple of other photos taken at the same time. The first is a normal shot showing the traffic nightmare. The second was shot with my Hoya 9 stop ND filter. Even though the cars were not moving fast, they still moved just fast enough to where most of them were cancelled out. This is a good technique if you're ever wanting to remove people or cars from a scene. I guess the other technique would be to take multiple shots using a tripod and then use Photoshop to remove the objects. But, not everyone has Photoshop.

Normal exposure: 1/60th f/16


9 stop ND - 10 seconds f/16