About 4 months ago I sold a lens to a chap and got into a conversation with him in which he told me that as a hobby he converted old point-and-shoot cameras to infra-red. I've been interested in IR for a couple of years now and the cameras he had for sale were very cheap in comparison to what it would cost to convert one of my old cameras, less than a hundred pounds. And so I bought one from him on his recommendation. I haven't shot very much with it and this is the first shot I've properly processed. The quality of the little camera leaves a little something to be desired, I see artefacts in the sky here for example, but I do like the look of the pictures it produces. The difficult thing is, as a rank beginner, knowing what will work and what won't. I think this did in that it almost has the look of B&W film with the heavy contrasts and tonality. Looking at most of my other IR shots I also have a pretty good idea of what doesn't work. Not sure how much I'll use this camera but it's an interesting diversion and it's an outlet for me when I want to shoot in the middle of the day, when the light is at it's harshest. For IR that is exactly the right conditions!

Tags:   Panasonic DMC-TZ8 Infrared IR Swerve in the road trees crops muddy path B&W

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Panasonic DMC-TZ8 converted to 720 IR

Tags:   Panasonic DMC-TZ8 Infrared IR Tree tree photography Coulsdon Common

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I have a cheap little Panasonic point-and-shoot camera that has been converted to infrared. The truth is I hardly use it, more because I tend not to think about it than because I hate the results it produces. So I took it out yesterday in addition to one of my big cameras and it produced a couple of shots that I quite liked. When you process an IR image you usually start out by swapping the red and blue colour channels in Photoshop (not as difficult as it sounds, takes 20 seconds) and then you may or may not convert it to B&W. That was the route I took with this one. I messed around with it in Nik Silver Efex Pro and somehow arrived at this. It’s still a mystery as to what I did to get this grainy mess but the more I looked at it the more it grew on me. Im sure the good citizens of Flickrland will soon convince me of my awful mistake in posting it but they always say “if YOU like it then you should post it”… 😂

Tags:   infrared farthing downs grainy mess Panasonic DMC-TZ8 point and shoot grass and trees

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We've had quite cold weather here in the south-east of England for the past week or so. But as yet we haven't had any snow, contrary to what this picture may suggest. If you check the date that this image was taken it will make more sense. This was taken with my little Panasonic IR-converted camera. The good thing about this image is about 90% of people that look at it won't read my description and undoubtedly think this is a snowy winter shot. lol

The signs by the way are all my local towns here on the outskirts of London. I live in Coulsdon, I used to live in Purley, while Chaldon and Hooley are nearby communities.

Tags:   signs Infrared Farthing Downs looks like winter local towns b&w black and white Monochrome Panasonic DMC-TZ8

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