I have been playing around with the brand new Lightroom 4 from Adobe, and I must say there is a lot to love, and learn. One of the new items that caught my eye was the Infrared filter. I have been using black and white Infrared cameras for years, for the dreamy quality that it offers. Also over the years I have tried a few short cuts, namely digital filters applied afterwards on the computer. For the most part I never really liked the filtered results, until now! This new Lightroom filter offers a soft ethereal feel to outdoor photos. It does not work on all photos well, but seems to work great with images that have great soft lighting. I doubt I will stop shooting Infrared in the camera, as that is part of the fun. But it is nice to know that if I want to add in the effect afterwards I can do it! The image on the right is using the Infrared filter, the image on the left is the original image.

These images Wendy took with our latest infrared camera. Pretty neat! Not sure this type of infrared image will work for a wedding, but we can always turn these images black and white if the color gets out of hand. I also envision being able to use this camera for trendy senior portraits, or artsy engagement images. Maybe band photos!

I figured it was time to post some photos from a few of our past photo projects. Some of these are recent photos, some are a few years old. I have been going through our past archives, and that is what prompted me. These are some Infrared images taken of our house and barn last spring.

The image below is from the ground floor of our barn. The studio is upstairs on the next level.

I am still playing around with my new infrared camera. I am not really sure that it is really doing what I hoped it would do, but it is still cool. I think I like the regular black and white infrared better, but then again, it still can be fun to try. I only use it for a few photos at each wedding, but it is nice and small, so I do not mind bringing it along! Below are two infrared photos, one from the color camera, and one from the infrared. The third photo is regular color. It should be noted, that most of the photos taken at this time are from our normal color camera, and we just slipped in the infrared as we went.

We recently got a Canon G12 as a walk around camera. It is smaller than our large pro cameras and lenses, so we can toss it in a pocket. Here are some infrared images that Wendy took with it while she was out walking around in South Burlington recently. Pretty funky!

Here is a favorite image of mine. It was taken down by Breakwaters in Burlington, Vermont. A Infrared camera was used for dramatic effect!

Here are a few album pages from the wedding album of Aly and Jesse. Each page has a combination of color and Infrared images. Using two cameras, I like to capture color and Infrared images at the same time. I love the milky charcoal tones! The bottom two images are designs for the album cover. Of course, I like the one on the right!

It rained all day, but I was still able to get a few cool outdoor photos with Hannah and Brad. They were married on Saturday at the Allenholm Orchard in South Hero. Most of the day was spent under the tent, but we managed to sneak out for a few minutes when the rain let up a bit. The top 2 images are done with one of our infrared cameras, and the bottom 3 are regular color. I love the top image which is unadjusted and straight out of the camera. The purplish image has been tweaked in Lightroom software.

I have had my new infrared camera for a few weeks and I love it! I had a Canon G12 camera modified with a “super blue” Infrared filter. Foliage turns a blazing golden color, but skies remain blue. Below are 3 photos from the recent wedding of Shannon and Steve. The top image Wendy took with our other infrared camera, which renders a more traditional black and white infrared effect-still pretty cool. The middle image was taken with the new camera-a completely new look. The bottom image was taken with our regular camera. We use multiple cameras so each look can be achieved quickly and easily.

I finally got my new Infrared camera, and this is the first test shot of our house and parking lot. Not a very exciting scene, but with Infrared it is pretty neat! This new camera is designed for color infrared, whereas our other infrared camera is for black and white. The top image below, has been modified in Lightroom. The bottom image is straight out of the camera. A bit too Velveeta cheese yellow for my taste, but I can always tweak that down in post production. I can envision some very cool artsy wedding images, and also something fun and quirky for high school seniors.