Took some IR photos late afternoon. Spent this evening playing with false color--both with split channels in RGB and CYMK--combining both. Also, layers, blend modes, etc. These are two of the results from the same 2 photos--a color and an IR with custom white point. The top 2 are the originals. The next two are the false colors, but I guess they go beyond that. (Sorry--break here while I do something else--file size too big with 2 in an image). First if color original

This is IR original, custom white point, slight tweak with histogram adjustment

split channels, recombined channels.

This is split channels, recombined channels and blend modes--quite a few layers. I think it has an illustrator-ish feel to it. In case anyone is wondering what the line is across the fence, its a line level--getting ready to take this fence down and move it and put up permanent one (nothing is ever 'finished' around here LOL). The building is my studio--the oldest building on the place and the first house but moved from its original place across the pastures. I might mention that IR photography is best done with lots of sun--little wind. Today there was a bit of breeze at 5 and I had to retake the IR's several times--since there is a long shutter time, if the trees blew, it would not have been possible to get good false color shot since each one had to be the same shot as the other.

Thought maybe I should add the B/W version since that's what most people associate with IR. I feel this might have been a better photo taken midday or slightly after. Not enough contrast with the sky above the trees at this time of day--and also the fact that it became extremely hazy late afternoon.

picnic, the pics are great. I love the b/w version the most. Actually, I like the way the trees blend into the sky on the upper right hand corner. So dramatic. (*

I think I like the original IR best. It's surreal, like the colours in my dreams. I dreamt in infrared once.

Hi Diane... As usual thes are great and fascinating all at once. I hate to admit that I don't know everything (LOL) but I will just this once :) Can you explain your channel splitting and how it works. I think I have an idea how you are handling this, but want to be sure we are using the same nomenclature and that we are on the same wavelength... (Yes the pun was intended)

Alpha, I don't have PS, but PSP and PHotopaint and both of those are quite similar in how they work, so assume PS is also (I had Elements demo on my HD, but deleted it and have worked with PS 6 demo, so believe what I say applies). I open my color and my IR images. I go to wherever you have channel split/combine (PSP is in color menu, Photopaint is under image menu). I split both into RGB or CMYK channels or one into one and one into other. Then I recombine the channels. For instance, if I was going to recombine as RGB (and had the color split CMYK and the IR split RGB), I might take the magenta channel from the color as the red, the cyan channel from the color for the green and the green channel from the IR for the blue (have no idea what this will do LOL) and combine them. If I don't like it, I try differently. For the first false color, I think I used the RGB combo, the color and the IR all as separate layers and then worked with blend modes on the layers. For the bottom, I know there were 4 layers--think I duplicated one--I didn't keep them intact as layers (probably should have so I could reference them), so can't tell you exactly, but it was a lot of 'try this, try that'. I moved layers around, tried different blend modes, opacity, etc. But--for the original false color, I just split the channels for both. The first time I tried one (the garden one I did several days ago) I know I used RGB splitting for both and just recombined them in different ways until I was happy with the outcome. I didn't use layers there. I just did this one quickly--started as original IR, split into CMYK. I didn't use the color photo. I used the yellow channel for the cyan, the cyan for the magenta, the magenta for the yellow left the black for the black. Does this explain what I did so its understandable?? Diane

Picnic i owe you a big hug ! You did give me pleany of good idea! This tip is really usefull to me Thanks ... I whas a bit bored of photo and whas searching for a new field to explore and you did give me real good boost without knowing....I did totally forgot about IR....and the cmyk trick is just what i needed!