Fields, hills and clouds compose a great subject for infrared photography. During a recent trip, I found myself driving on a small country road surrounded by fields. Weather conditions were great, and it tuned out that packing with me the Leica M8 was a clever move !
Depending on weather conditions, sometimes infrared works great and sometimes the results are below my expectations. This was one of the good times, says I managed to make some of the my best IR photos this year.
My IR combo was the usual (M8, Voigtlander 21mm, B+W 092 filter). It was one of the rare times when false color infrared showed better than the black and white conversion.
In addition to the usual false color IR process (switch red and blue channels), I am also using the Cross Balance effect on my Nik Color Efex software. It works great since it boosts color in away that is more impressive than the standard process.
I was also lucky since most of shots were with the sun behind me. The Voigtlander 21mm with the IR filter is very prone to flares and they can really ruin the image. My a Leica Elmarit 28mm behaves much better, but the 37mm equivalent focal length is not very suitable for landscape work.
The Leica M8 has really been an invaluable camera for IR photography. These days, i am almost exclusively using it for this kind of work. It still a nan produce very good “normal” photos, especially black and white, but with the D800E and the Fuji X100 present, I tend to use the Leica like I would with modified IR camera. That ensures, that I will keep it until it no longer works (which I hope it will for many years to come !)
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