After releasing a few pictures of my IR underwater photos. I’ve been criticized, questioned and of cos told off. But who cares, right? Is about understanding my techniques and exploring other possibilities in Underwater photography.

One of most important thing to understand when trying out new or improved techniques is to understand what you’re doing. Make sure you can justify your action. Like most, great photographers, experiments, testing and understanding other peoples work is important.That’s how we get better, continuous learning process.

This is just  my process. With Underwater IR, the best is to try out on macro.

1) Use your strobes to light up your subject cos IR cuts out alot of color and as you go deeper, colors disappear. 

2) The distance between lens and camera must be close. If possible fill your frame up. utilize the 1:1 magnification.

3) Use a Modded body than just a filter. Get your local technician to convert for you.

4) Setting your WB for the SHOT ( On Green ) sometimes i try other colors to experiment.

5) Sometimes getting a multi-colored subject helps. cos IR records every color differently.

6) Most importantly, have fun and explore the possibilities.

As for the post production in Photoshop: ( loads of sample on the Internet

1) I usually try export it in RAW ( Shot in RAW format)

2) Use channel mixer to reverse the color of blue and red

3) Auto color it

4) Adjust the Hue and Saturation

5) Save as TIff..

Some might say that its as good as being a desaturated picture and can be done in photo shop. Yes, i could be done. But where’s the fun in all that, the idea of discovering and testing. Not everybody is Photoshopagrapher.

I’m still testing and mucking around with the camera. Will update on the blog as weeks goes by. Have a great weeekend, world