More Surreal IR Photography experiments from Newcastle - (feel free to use them in your posts)

Introduction

I've previously posted some of my other IR experimentation with the statue of a River God which has become colloquially known as Spiderman and also some experiments with photographing Bamburgh Castle.

Here are some more IR photos including some of the sculpture that partners Spiderman at the Civic Centre. These were taken during a fun photo walk with other photographers. Photo walks are a great way of learning new things and finding local places with good photography subjects which you may have missed.

I have also divided this post into two parts as there were getting to be too many photos. These are all free for you to use under Steemit4free.

In other news I am currently looking at getting my Nikon D7100 converted so I can do some new IR shoots - I just love the way you never quite know how things will look. IR also has a tendency to show you familiar things in a new, surreal, almost other-wordly way which is often fascinating.


Statues next to Spiderman

These are the sister sculptures/statues to the aforementioned Spiderman. I have included the colour versions here too.


The Colour Versions

Just a quick FYI:

There are problems with white balancing partial IR colour shots in LR/PS as I think I have previously mentioned. You need to do the white balancing in the Canon/Nikon Raw converter, then take them into PS to do a blue/red channel swap - that is how you get those amazing surreal looking partial colour IR shots you see at places like Lifepixel. Anyway sometimes they look good even if you don't do that:

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The Black and White Versions

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In case you needed a reminder of Spiderman:

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War Memorials

Like most UK cities Newcastle has lots of war memorials. There were 2 that I visited on this occasion. I only got one decent shot of the first one. It seems the pigeons were there paying their tributes too.


This one is for both world wars.

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This one is a WW I memorial if I remember correctly:

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The following shot illustrates some of the problems with how you can get weird artefacts when shooting in IR. Some of these seem to relate to the coatings on lenses. Note the weird lines in the sky. Just moving slightly for the next shot seemed to remove them, although it seems to change the whole tonal range of the shot somewhat. I prefer the version with the lines!

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Gravestones

I love the textures on these. I thought they might come in useful for people to use for Halloween posts. In the centre of Newcastle there is a very ancient graveyard. Some of the graves are allegedly over a 1000 years old. Unfortunately most grave stones do not last beyond about 150 years due to the British weather. That is also part of what gives them their wonderful texture. It was interesting to see how some of the older intact gravestones had lost almost all their markings.
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If you like my work and aren't already, please follow me and check out my blog (I mainly discuss photography but I do other topics like this too) - @thecryptofiend


Photo Credits: All photos are my own and free for you to use under the terms of Steemit4free


(Verification for me here: http://www.aapicture.com/about-me)


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The best people come from Newcastle :D. Fab photos, :)

I'm from Sunderland lol! Thank you for your support:)

Ahh poor you lol you could always move.. :)

Lol. I might have to at some point but it is cheaper to live in Sunderland and the traffic is better too:)

What part of a Sunderland? I used to live near Sunderland growing up then moved onto South Shields

Near the Eye Infirmary.

Awesome artwork!
I like the IR effect too, and superb location.

Thank you for your continued support and kind words:)

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Great photos. There is a somewhat Kafkaesque vibe to them, it's very atmospheric. Well done!

Thanks I am glad you like them:)

Would you mind if I made use of a couple of them when uploading some upcoming chapters of my novel to steemit? They are well suited for one of my character's plot lines.

Please do. That is the purpose of the Steemit4free tag. Send me a link if you have time. Also if you go through any of my own personally taken photos (they have to be ones that I've taken I can't give permission for other photos) feel free to use them.

I am not certain that I am going to add images to the chapters as of yet, but if I do decide to, then your images won't needed until the sixth chapter. If I do use them though, I will certainly link you the page as well as crediting this post as the source.

Those gravestones are spooky. Perfect for Halloween! Totally looking forward to using a few of them in some spooky season posts of my own over the next couple of weeks. Thanks so much for going with the whole #steemit4free project, it's a great way to give back to the community!

Thanks. Please let me know when you post your stories:)

Your pictures are very artful, great job!

Thank you. Glad you like them:)

I enjoy your pics very much. I even printed one of your River God shots on photographic paper and framed it a few weeks ago. To me it seems like a variation of the crucifixion motif. Don't know if that was the intent, but these things are not necessarily conscious.

Very cool. I never thought of it as a crucification motif. I think I should get some shots printed too - I think these days we kind of forget we can do that! Also thanks for letting me know you liked it enough to hang it on your wall. For an amateur like me that is the biggest complement:)