Sunday 27 September 2020

Brimham Rocks

I've been photographing in infrared for 15 years starting off with the Sony F717 bridge camera with an R72 filter attached and experience has taught me that the best infrared photographs are a combination of foliage and hard landscaping in the form of water, rocks, buildings, fences etc. to prevent the problem of wall to wall whiteness where there's no contrast and no focal point for the eye to rest on. Hard landscaping as a stage set to show off the white foliage of infrared is in my opinion the best look for landscapes.

With that philosophy in mind I enjoyed an afternoon at the National Trusts Brimham Rocks in October 2018. Brimham Rocks, is a 184 hectare biological site of Special Scientific Interest on Brimham Moor in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 8 mls north west of Harrogate, North Yorkshire. 

Lone Tree at Brimham Rocks - 720nm channel swapped

Brimham Rocks have been sculptured by the ice, wind and rain of nature for thousands of years but many of the formations could easily be mistaken for Henry Moore art work occasionally peppered with lone trees rooted in shallow crags. This makes them a wonderful subject for photography whether it's infrared or traditional colour photography. 

720nm infrared - channel swapped

720nm infrared - channel swapped

During this visit all of my shooting was done with a Sony A6000 which has been permanently converted to the 720nm standard wavelength of infrared. The 720nm wavelength produces weak colour in the red and blue channels only. With the correct white balance set to green grass, the colours straight out of camera have a brown sky. Some of these images have been channel swapped to produce a blue sky as above, one has been processed with the colours straight out of camera with a brown sky and many were processed as traditional monochrome images. My go to lens for these infrared photographs was the excellent Zeiss 12mm f2.8 Touit which captures very sharp images without any hotspots.

720nm infrared - out of camera colour

Traditional "fine art" infrared photography has always been in monochrome. Producing infrared images has alway been a creative post processing exercise and there are 101 ways to process any Raw image but I've been slowly moving away from false colour towards the more traditional monochrome since this visit to Brimham Rocks. Does monochrome work better? That's subjective and a matter for your personal taste. 

720nm infrared 

720nm infrared 

720nm infrared

The weak Autumn light wasn't perfect for infrared and I've had to do some dodging of the highlights as a result to brighten and enhance the white foliage but the bonus was there were very few visitors to the site on the day which gave me free reign to shoot without being disturbed. I'd love to return during the Summer months when I expect the results and the atmosphere captured in the images will be very different.