Grabbing your viewers by the throat and not letting go…
A dark and stormy night, Fuji X Pro 1 w/ 14mm fuji lens at 720nm Infrared.
Images that are dark and moody tend to grab our attention. It is as though there is something hidden and dark that demands our attention. We stare at them and analyze the image for a deeper hidden meaning. This creates emotional impact that allows our viewers to share what we felt as we created the images!
Look for dark, stormy skies, moody clouds, dark trees or water. Work in Infrared and you will find that you have a much better chance to capture these kinds of images more often than when working in color. It is still possible to do so in color but you have to work harder at it!
Paradise Island Light, Nassau
As you can see in the image above, it is moody and draws the viewer into the scene, but it does not have that “dark and stormy” look and feel! As I stated before, it is much easier to capture these types of image when working in Infrared!
A dark and stormy night
Work in both Faux Color and B&W. You never really know what you are going to get unless you take the time to post process both ways. You should even look seriously at the properly white balanced raw image right out of the camera! Sometime you can get a really stunning image there.
Lady Katheran, 720nm Infrared, Fuji X Pro 1 with Fuji 14mm lens.
Here is the same image processed in B&W.
Lady Katheran
The workflow to getting great images in post processing is to ALWAYS process in the 3 main ways:
- RAW: Check how the images looks right out of the camera. In 720nm and 590nm you can get some stunning images with beautiful bronze skies!
- Faux Color: If your camera captures any color data at all (720nm and lower) then you should ALWAYS take the time to process in this mode.
- B&W: You just done know what you are going to get unless you try!
Try adding a lens vignette to your images to darken the corners. This will give more mood!
Here are some examples of RAW and B&W post processing!
McClellanville Shrimper, RAW right out of the camera!
McClellanville Shrimper, B&W
As you can see both versions give stunning results. The most important thing for you to remember is that to get the best results from all of your images it is necessary to take the time to post process in all three modes. Do not short change yourself by cutting corners. Take the time to give each image your best try!
You will be rewarded for you work!
Mark Hilliard Atelier's Blog 
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Thanks again for the blog Mark, always great stuff. Can’t wait to come to one of the workshops.
Thanks for the kind words John!
Is your fuji xpro modified by a professional? Thank.
Yes, LDP (maxmax.com). It was an expensive conversion but first class work.
nice article, as usual. I really like the different versions you posted here. thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the kind words!
Hello would you mind sharing the workflow to process those lovely infrared pictures?
Sure! Detailed workflows can be found at my IR Educational BLOG at http://www.infraredatelier.wordpress.com
I love your work Mark, any work. You amazing . Thank you.
Can you help me please? am trying to use Aperture for processing IR. I have no clue if I can do it with Aperture. When you want B+W do you shoot in B+W ??Do shoot in color for color processing? All I can find on the web is related to Photoshop. Also El Capitan and Elements 14 0n the Mac do not appear to work well !!! BST
Yes, shoot for color, process for color THEN convert to B&W this gives the B&W software much more data to work with and gives better results! Photoshop and the Nik filter set.
What about Aperture software ? What will work with El Capitan ?The reviews for Elements 14 and El Capitan are pretty bad
No you really need photoshop and the nik filters
Thanks, I guess I will have to take a shot at elements 14 and El Capitan on my Mac
If you were going to use elements you have to buy an optional elements plug-in called elements plus spell PL US that gives you the channel swap functionality that does not come with elements
FYI, the entire NIK software package is now free. Google is giving it away, as of about a week ago.