July 1st is Canada Day and this year Canadians are celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday. On July 1st, to honor this special celebration, I spent most of the day gazing through 15 years of photographic archives and selected 150 of my favorite color images shot in Western Canada where I was born and raised. Oh Canada, my home and native land. You’re so beautiful! Here’s my Canada 150 in a slideshow:
Canada 150 – Happy Birthday to my home and native land! from Carol Watson on Vimeo.
I’ve been photographing in digital infrared (IR) for nearly 15 years and for the last two years, I’ve been playing around with color IR after having two of my Nikon cameras converted to 590nm and 720nm IR cameras. I thought I’d provide a sample of the different color palattes you can achieve in Lightroom and/or Photoshop. I shot these images from the apartment in Vancouver in November when some of the leaves were turning color and falling from the trees.
Here is a color digital infrared image directly out of my camera. You’ll notice the red cast.
I edited the image in Lightroom using a preset that I created to neutralize the red cast which helps you see how the foliage becomes cotton candy blue in IR. Here’s the resulting image:
Another technique I use is to bring the original image into Photoshop and use the Channel Mixer to swap the red channel and the blue channel. This will change the foliage to warm colors rather than the cool blue:
The color palatte I choose for the final image will change depending on the composition of the photograph and the elements in it. Which does your eye prefer?
I decided, on short notice, to surprise my youngest daughter on her birthday. So I hopped on a flight to Vancouver, BC, Canada in early November. I booked an apartment in Yaletown with a great view. Despite the weather being typically rainy and cold, I still enjoyed my week there because I was able to spend some quality time with my daughter. I love Vancouver anytime of the year. Fall color was starting to appear in the city as evidenced by some photographs I took from the apartment.
