Downloading Tools???

[man1c]

Forget below I was being a muppet,dohh. Sorted and installed in Mac now. Just got to figure out how to use channel mixer now for IR photography.

Matt


Hi all, finding the download instructions confusing, not too savvy with these sort of things.

Have seen warnings that one cannot click FTP link on Mac and only on FTP server (which means nothing to me) anyway. Clicked on link that was emailed to me (on my old Dell laptop) and have 'downloaded' a file =which is sitting on my desktop, an unrecognised file at that. The options given to me to download was for Mac or PC. Being that its for my Mac I clicked on Mac one. My idea was to move file to Mobile Me iDisk then install file into my Mac version of Elements 6. Tried to move it to Idisk and got a upload error. Any idea's, am I going about this the right way??

Matt

[Richard_Lynch]

Glad you got it figured out!

[man1c]

Thanks Richard.

Can anyone point to a tutorial for using the Elements channel mixer to re-enact the facility in CS3/4 mainly to use a blue sky for IR photograpy?

[Richard_Lynch]

If you know the steps for Photoshop and you are using my tools, you just need to use those steps. If you copy/paste here I may be able to provide more detail, but also my B&W tool will make a better mock IR conversion than a channel mixer...

[man1c]

I've seen a video tutorial of the PS Channel mixer but could could not relate it to the Elements one. It is actual IR photography rather than a conversion. Taken in raw.

trying to do as in this link

[Richard_Lynch]

If you are doing true IR photography with a converted camera, you do not need channel mixer to resolve the results. There is no 'channel mixer' in Elements, unless you are talking about my tools.

[man1c]

Sorry to confuse, I am using a non converted D90 with a Hoya R72 and long exposures. This gives me a red raw photo that I wish to firstly autolevel, then adjust reds and blues in channel mixer so as to keep white in foliage etc but to give it a blue sky (as in link on previous post)

[Richard_Lynch]

If you have a red RAW image, you do not need to mix the channels. You should instead try:

1. open the image
2. open hue/saturation
3. choose Red from the channels drop list
4. push the lightness slider all the way right

[man1c]

I am not being clear I guess, yes that will take away reds, but as stated, in the link I pasted, one can gain an effect by swapping the blues/reds (as in link) which I am under the impression has to be done within a channel mixer so I am trying to understand how to swap them. If I can find original video tutorial I will paste. Cannot find at mo.

[Michel B]

Originally Posted by man1c

I am not being clear I guess, yes that will take away reds, but as stated, in the link I pasted, one can gain an effect by swapping the blues/reds (as in link) which I am under the impression has to be done within a channel mixer so I am trying to understand how to swap them. If I can find original video tutorial I will paste. Cannot find at mo.

If you have Richard Lynch's Power_separation tools, use the 'RGB_separation complete', and to swap red and blue, fill the 'color blue' layer with red, and the 'color red' layer with blue. I find it easier to use layers than channel mixer for this purpose.

[man1c]

Thanks for your input, I will have to have a look. I am still really only touching the surface of Elements 6 and even layer masks is not something I am versant with, (on a plug in obviously) I just need to persevere.
This is why I was searching for a tutorial. With all the good will in the world 'suggestions' although very much appreciated, are limited in their help to me as most of them I do not understand.

Thanks for all the input.

Matt

[Richard_Lynch]

If you are already filtering the light with an R72 on a converted camera, you are only capturing red and infrared light. That means the same information will be on the blue, red and green channels and it will ALL be from the IR spectrum. Swapping the channels theoretically should not do anything, or the process is not working as it should.

[man1c]

I don't profess to understand it, just that it was done in a tutorial. Damn i'm going to have to find it to see where i'm going wrong. Thanks

Matt

[man1c]

Finding it difficult to find just text referring to it. This is closest so far

After seeing the sample that he sent over to me, I was dying to know how it worked. Frank's response:

"It's easy...

Put a Channel Mixer layer on the image...

Go to the Red channel and make it Red 0% Blue 100%

Then go to the blue channel and make it blue 0% and Red 100%

Short and sweet."

I'm well versed in the ins and outs of Photoshop, so I instantly recoginized Frank's directions. Basically, the IR Channel Shift is reversing the red and blue channels so that red is blue and blue is red. I read somewhere that this concept was created to balance the red coloring that the infrared filter usually gives digital photography. It definately makes my digital infrared photographs look more realistic, if only for the fact that the sky is blue instead of red.

[man1c]

Original Tutorial

Above is where I saw it originally which hopefully shows what I mean.

Matt

[Richard_Lynch]

Again, shifting channels in a capture that is taken on a converted camera that will be capturing only IR anyway will not help you. The light in the red and blue and green and if there were a polkadot channel....would all be the same. That technique refers to converting a plain, vanilla RGB capture.