Today is #anythingcanhappenday on this Blog and and it’s also National Cousins Day. Recently, I’ve increased the the number of glamour and portrait-related posts appearing here and based on an increase in page views, people seem to be enjoying them. Today’s post combines my interest in glamour photography with infrared photography.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Glamour photography a photographic genre that highlights beauty, sexiness, allure, dazzle, fine lines and even romance. In other words, glamour photography emphasizes drama and all that jazz.” – Headshot London
I’ve been making infrared images since back in the film days and still have a roll of Kodak High Speed Infrared (black & White) film in my refrigerator. Making portraits in infrared was the farthest thing from my mind and when I became involved in digital infrared photography. That was becasue making portraits was not a recommended use of this technology, at least according to all of the Internet pundits at the time. Despite this admonition, one of the earliest non-landscape applications for monochrome IR imaging was for wedding photography because it added a decidedly romantic touch to the images. You can see some striking examples of this genre from creative photographers who are featured in my book, The Complete Guide to Infrared Photography. But what about portrait and glamour photography. Let me tell you a story…
Infrared Glamour?
I think my initial hesitancy about making infrared portraits was because along with some of my IR-shooting friends I had been told by “the experts” that we shouldn’t photograph people using infrared techniques. This still appears to be a widely held opinion. In fact, some images that I made of former muse, Tia Stoneman, for an article in a magazine aimed at professional photographers were rejected by its editor because she said the subject “looked like a vampire.” Maybe she wasn’t a fan of the Twilight movies? Or perhaps she didn’t appreciate what I was trying to accomplish, But maybe, just maybe, she just didn’t like me. I’ve always felt that was somewhat the case but what are you gonna do about it? The one thing I’ve learned in all my time on this planet—now I’m going to get all philosophical—is that you can’t make people like you, as much as you might prefer them to.
Yet some photographers,most notably my friend Vincent Versace has been making some beautiful portrait images with his infrared-converted Nikon cameras. You should follow him on Instagram, not just for his infrared images but for the beauty and sensitivity of his work. If Vinnie can make these gorgeous portrait why couldn’t I use my IR-converted Lumix cameras to shoot some glamour images, like the one of Erin Valakari that’s featured today? I’ve been exploring this genre off and on for more than a few years and feel that I’ve not yet tapped into the creative spark that can elevate my work but am working on it and that, to me, is part of what photography is all about. It’s a continuing process of experimenting, striving and learning from what you do in order make images that make you feel like you’ve accomplished something beautiful, something wonderful.
How I Made this Image: I made this infrared portrait of Erin in the foyer of my Daisy Hill home using the light from a large South-facing window (on the second floor) and light coming from two sidelights on both sides of my front door. How much infrared light was coming in from these sources? I don’t know. The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix G5 that was Panasonic’s ninth G-series Micro Four Thirds camera and is built around a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor. Infrared conversion was done by Life Pixel using their Standard IR (720nm) filter. The lens was an Olympus 45mm f/1.8 (90mm equivalent) with an exposure of 1/200 sec at f/2.2 and ISO 640 with an exposure compensation of plus two-third stops.
The RAW file (above left) was opened in Adobe Camera RAW, slightly tweaked and converted to monochrome with Silver Efex using their High Structure (harsh preset) that was applied twice. Dfine was applied to knock down some of the noise before applying a Platinum tone from PhotoKit that was topped of with the Glamour Glow filter from Color Efex.
I’ve found that Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and they’ve done most of the conversions for my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix G-series cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.
Used copies of my book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography are available from Amazon starting around nine bucks as I write this. My book Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available new from Amazon for $11.46 with used copies starting around six bucks as I write this.