Random Photos

Andy Resnick · Sep 14, 2026

berkeman said:

Very nice composition! I like the intertwined geometries and how you can even see the reflection of the white plane in the glossy seat covers.

I agree, but did you try asking the pilot to move the plane a few feet to the right so it lines up better with the seats? :)

Andy Resnick · Sep 18, 2026

Another photo using the tilt-shift adapter and Vivitar 135/3.5:

Dense clump of Physostegia virginiana in bloom, with many spikes of lilac-purple tubular flowers rising above slender green foliage in sunlight.

Physostegia virginiana (Obedient Plant, False Dragonhead). The use of a (relatively) long focal length reduces perspective distortion, so distant plants are approximately the same size as nearby plants.

collinsmark · Sep 20, 2026

I was out and about with my camera on Thursday, a week and a half ago (it's typical for me to be out and about on a Thursday). Here are some of the non-protest related photos.

Yellow wheel loader with a blade and a towed trailer moves across dirt ground, blurred by motion panning, with a blue sky and hillside behind.

Figure 1.

Motion-blurred photo taken from a moving train of a rail track beside a wall covered in colourful graffiti tags, with a two-storey motel-style building and a blue sky behind.

Figure 2.

Motion-blurred photo of a woman in pale green leggings and a dark top standing on a platform beside a yellow tactile edge, looking at her phone, with a seated person in a white shirt and a standing person in red.

Figure 3.

Figure 4. "These are not chromatic aberrations."

Motion-blurred photo of a red and orange light rail train at a platform, with a yellow tactile paving strip, a standing passenger, and tall glass buildings and clouds above.

Figure 5.

A small white dog with a blue Voyager harness sits in a black stroller basket, looking toward the camera, with blurred pedestrians around it.

Figure 6. You may recognize this puppy from previous posts (he's adorable in person); I've been taking his photo occasionally for almost a year now. I think this is his best portrait so far.

To be continued. ...

berkeman · Sep 20, 2026

collinsmark said:

Figure 6. You may recognize this puppy from previous posts (he's adorable in person); I've been taking his photo occasionally for almost a year now. I think this is his best portrait so far.

He does not look amused...

collinsmark · Sep 20, 2026

... Continued from previous post.

A white dog with tan ears sits in a dark wheeled cart, wearing a blue mesh harness with a black buckle, looking off to the side.

Figure 7. He might not always look amused, but he's a very friendly puppy.

Black and white street photo of a multi-storey building with EXIT and ENTRANCE signs under a covered walkway; a woman pushes a stroller and a man pushes a wheeled cart with a small dog, and a seated man sits near the entrance.

Figure 8. I've mentioned before that San Diego is a relatively dog-friendly city. I'm not sure what's going on here, but people do treat their dogs in the highest regard.

Street view of a cream-coloured multi-storey building with a decorative cornice, beneath tall glass office towers; storefronts include Southern Hotel, Thotsakan Thai and Vegetarian Cuisine, Coffee N Talk, and Blazin Smoke Shop, with an Amazon Prime van and a white pickup truck on the road.

Figure 9.

Street scene of a tram stop on Fifth Avenue with a red light-rail train approaching, a woman walking on the brick sidewalk, and tall glass high-rises behind older cream-colored buildings.

Figure 10.

Intentionally blurred motion photo of a street scene with a worker in a high-visibility yellow vest standing beside orange and white traffic barrels, a blue car and a dark pickup truck parked nearby.

figure 11.

Intentionally blurred street photo at a crosswalk: a pedestrian in white cap and shirt walking across, a blue signal pole, a green traffic light, and a black sign reading SIDEWALK CLOSED.

Figure 12.

Two young people waiting at a transit platform with a teal metal railing; a sign reads Fashion Valley, a seated youth in a blue shirt on the left and a skateboarder with a book on the right, with a JCPenney sign and palm tree behind.

Figure 13.

Photo of a red light rail train's window with a "DOWNTOWN SD" destination sign, showing reflections of a platform canopy and two silhouetted passengers seated inside.

Figure 14. "San Diego trolley window reflection and transmission." This is my favorite picture of the day.

Sansali · Sep 22, 2026

collinsmark said:

I was out and about with my camera on Thursday, a week and a half ago (it's typical for me to be out and about on a Thursday). Here are some of the non-protest related photos.

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Figure 1.

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Figure 2.

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Figure 3.

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Figure 4. "These are not chromatic aberrations."

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Figure 5.

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Figure 6. You may recognize this puppy from previous posts (he's adorable in person); I've been taking his photo occasionally for almost a year now. I think this is his best portrait so far.

To be continued. ...

This puppy looks at me like' I am the wrong one'.

Point Conception · Sep 25, 2026

Southwest monsoon in Pattaya with a vengeance. Combination of SW monsoon and low pressure over Cambodia to the East. Pattaya is about centered in weather image.

Night photo of a flooded street lined with bars, water covering the pavement and reaching the tables and chairs of an outdoor bar; signs read Hunny Lounge and RUNWAY BAR, with a person wading through the water.

Large white and dark blue catamaran ferry, labelled Pattaya Villa, grounded on a sandy beach, with several people in orange rain gear standing nearby under a grey sky.

Thai Meteorological Department satellite cloud map dated 25 September 2569 at 07.00, with a red L low-pressure marker over central Thailand, dark outlined storm clouds, and yellow arrows over the Andaman Sea.

Andy Resnick · Sep 25, 2026

Same flowers, same tilt-shift, different lens- 15mm, my widest:

Dense cluster of pink-purple tubular flowers on tall spikes, with green foliage and sunlit garden background.

With this lens, I increase perspective distortion, so nearby objects are WAY larger than distant objects. One drawback, because this is a retrofocus lens there is vignetting, so I cropped that image as well as this anti-scheimpflug image:

Dense cluster of pink-purple flower spikes, likely obedient plant (Physostegia), with green foliage and soft blurred background in bright sunlight.

The effect is not as compelling as I would like. For whatever reason, anti-scheimpflug works great with my 28mm lens:

Tilt-shift photo of a lawn with a grey folding lounger on the left and a grey dome-topped lamp post on the right, with a white wooden shed blurred in the background.

jrmichler · Sep 25, 2026

Visited St Peters Dome, Marengo, Wisconsin today on a whim. Looks like I arrived at peak fall colors. Two moms (and dads) were nervous when their 4 to 5 year old boys wanted to walk up to the edge. Turkey vulture soaring overhead. Cell phone camera.

Wide view from a rocky outcrop over a forest of deciduous trees in full autumn color, with reds, oranges, yellows and green, stretching to a distant horizon under a partly cloudy blue sky.

Stopped off at Morgan Falls on the return walk. Water flow is low because this area has been listed as extreme drought most of the summer. Same cell phone camera.

Narrow rocky gorge with a thin waterfall cascading down moss-covered stone ledges, surrounded by green trees, with a shallow pool of amber-tinted water in the foreground.

It was a perfect day for a fall walk. Sunny, scattered clouds, calm wind, and temperature about 65 deg F.

berkeman · Sep 25, 2026

jrmichler said:

when their 4 to 5 year old boys wanted to walk up to the edge. Turkey vulture soaring overhead.

Smart birds.

Point Conception · Sep 27, 2026

Pattaya. Marathon, 27 Sep , Sunday

Large crowd of runners jogging down a wet street at night in heavy rain, with palm trees, street lamps and a seafront promenade alongside.

berkeman · Sep 27, 2026

Why are they running a marathon in the dark?

Point Conception · Sep 27, 2026

berkeman said:

Why are they running a marathon in the dark?

AI times and AI reason is to avoid the heat. Average in September is 31C. However only reached 27C this weekend.

Screenshot of an AI search answer for the query 'pattaya marathon 2026 start time', listing start times for 10 km, 4.5 km family run, full marathon and half marathon on 26-27 September 2026.

jrmichler · Sep 28, 2026

The view from the observation tower on Timm's Hill today. It's the highest point in Wisconsin at 1951 feet elevation and more or less 200 feet above the surrounding terrain. Those with real hills can laugh hysterically at this little hill, but it's what we have, so we made it a county park. Nice fall colors. I was going somewhere else, and it was only a few miles out of my way.

View from an observation tower over a forest of autumn-colored trees in yellow, orange and green, with rolling hills under a blue sky with clouds; a weathered wooden railing with wire mesh is in the foreground.

Cell phone camera.

BillTre · Sep 30, 2026

BillTre · Sep 30, 2026

A bearded man in a dark cap and glasses holds up two very large pine cones, one in each hand, against a plain wall.

collinsmark · Oct 2, 2026

Some more photos from another Thursday. (Only non-political ones shown here.)

Motion-blurred photo of a train platform with a covered shelter and metal benches, a woman in a plaid shirt, a man pushing a stroller with a child, and tall apartment buildings behind.

Figure 1. "Family Time."

Exterior view of a modern concrete and glass office building with a white louvered canopy over a glass-walled entrance and a walkway, with a person standing near yellow caution cones and a clear blue sky above.

Figure 2.

Street view of a city corner with a tall beige stone building labelled OF JUSTICE, a glass tower with a sloped top beside it, a white and red bus, and a Road Work Ahead sign at a crosswalk on Union Street.

Figure 3.

Street scene of a cream-colored Spanish Revival station building with arched arcades and a domed tower, flanked by palm trees, with tall glass high-rise towers behind it under a deep blue sky.

Figure 4. Santa Fe Station (In San Diego. You've seen other angles/perspectives of this station in other posts).

Motion-blurred photo of a roller coaster train of riders with a blue steel support tower behind, green trees and a sandy beige ground, taken with intentional camera movement.

Figure 5. "Times of Struggle." This is one of my favorites.

Motion-blurred photo taken from a moving train window of a hillside with houses, trees, power lines and a yellow construction vehicle under a blue sky with clouds.

Figure 6.

Motion-blurred photo of a construction site with vertical rebar columns, workers in a yellow hi-vis vest and dark clothing, parked cars and a blue sky behind.

Figure 7.

Motion-blurred photo of a construction site with a blue crane arm at upper left, vertical steel rebar in the centre, a figure in a yellow helmet, and orange and grey blur throughout.

Figure 8.

Motion-blurred photo of a construction site with an orange and black Sumitomo-branded compact loader, a blue crane boom at left, stacked lumber and pipes behind, and workers in hard hats at right.

Figure 9.

Photo taken with panning motion blur of a blue telehandler with an extended boom at a construction site, with workers in hi-vis vests and stacked material nearby, and a blurred building behind.

Figure 10.

Borg · Oct 3, 2026

Visited an out of the way museum (Glenstone) in the DC area yesterday. It's part museum and part nature preserve. Tickets are free but go fast.

Large sculpture of a watering can covered in dense red, orange and green flowering plants, standing on a gravel base with a bench and trees behind it.

Large polished stainless steel sculpture of a rider on horseback, viewed from behind, standing on a dark stone plinth beside a pale grey stone wall and a lawn.

Wooden boardwalk curving through a meadow of tall dry grasses and reddish-brown flower heads, with a line of mixed deciduous trees and a tall pine under a partly cloudy blue sky.

Dirt path with wood chip surface running through a grassy meadow, framed by pine and deciduous trees, with a tree line in the distance under a pale sky.

BillTre · Oct 3, 2026

Another obscure but interesting place in DC is Dumbarton Oaks.
The grounds make me think of Alice inn Wonderland.

Andy Resnick · Oct 3, 2026

Field trip today and I challenged myself to shoot 28mm tilt-shift by hand (no tripod). The lens also has a polarizer, so the sky looks x-tra blue.

This one is no shift or tilt, I just tried to keep all the horizontal and vertical lines staying horizontal and vertical:

Photo of a brick stairway leading up to a plaza with a brick building with horizontal window bands, a glass triangular roof element, and a white building with a red door behind, under a deep blue sky.

Mostly successful, but not quite right. It's tricky to get both the correct camera location ('x' and 'y', so to speak) and also camera pitch/yaw. That's the whole point of shooting tilt-shift in the first place :)

This one used just shift, and unfortunately there's some vignetting in the upper corners (damn you, retrofocus! :)

Brick academic building with a white cupola and spire at its center, photographed from a lawn with concrete walkways, under a deep blue sky. A green traffic cone sits on the grass at right.

Again- close, but not quite right: the bottom triangles are truncated and the building isn't centered. I needed to take 1 step backwards and pay more attention to the sides.

Fortunately, anti-Scheimpflug ("diorama effect") is super-easy to get right:

Tilt-shift photo of a football stadium field with a blurred foreground of red seats, a yellow goalpost and a black end zone reading BEARCATS.

Point Conception · Oct 4, 2026

SW Monsoon clouds looking South from Jomtien to Sattahip.

Large cumulonimbus clouds with bright white towers rising over a dark grey base above a sea, with a city skyline and hills along the distant shoreline.

Large white cumulus clouds with a flat grey base over calm sea, a distant hilly coastline, and a cargo ship with a crane at the lower right.

collinsmark · Oct 5, 2026

Here are some pictures I took last Thursday (this most recent Thursday) that I thought were worth posting here.

Motion-blurred photo of a multi-story building under construction wrapped in scaffolding, with a yellow crane, orange equipment and a worker in a hi-vis vest on a dirt site beneath a blue sky.

Figure 1.

Motion-blurred photo of a construction site with rebar columns and an orange-vested worker in a hard hat walking on snow, with autumn trees and a blue sky behind.

Figure 2.

Motion-blurred photo of a construction site with scaffolding, a worker in an orange high-visibility vest, and a parked car at the left edge.

Figure 3.

Black and white photo of a colonnade of fluted columns with dark granite bases, casting diagonal shadows across a paved walkway, with a lone pedestrian far down the arcade.

Figure 4.

Glass-fronted modern office or civic building with a white concrete column at left, a low green hedge in the foreground and steps leading up to a covered walkway under a clear blue sky.

Figure 5.

Street view of a tall cream-colored high-rise with rows of rectangular and arched windows, sunlight casting striped shadows across its facade, flanked by glass office towers and trees, with a street sign reading Front.

Figure 6.

City street with brick apartment buildings with fire escapes on the left, a glass and white high-rise on the right, a green traffic signal, parked cars, and a black car driving on the road.

Figure 7.

To be continued. ...

collinsmark · Oct 5, 2026

... Continued from previous post.

Street view of a storefront with a large sign reading "Golden Boy Bail Bonds, 24 Hours, 123 West C Street" and green awnings, with a man in white walking past and a woman in black walking on the sidewalk.

Figure 8. "Bond of golden boy."

Front of Fire Station 1 with three red fire engines parked in open bays, including Truck Co. 1 and an XR1 unit marked San Diego Fire-Rescue, with American and California flags beside the building.

Figure 9.

Street view of a glass high-rise with a red San Diego Fire-Rescue engine parked at the curb and a red car in the foreground, with the word West on the building facade.

Figure 10.

Stucco building facade in terracotta pink with arched cornice detail, a yellow ochre building behind it and a red building at left, under a clear blue sky; a dark metal door at the bottom reads 'POWER'.

Figure 11. Taken from inside trolley. I saw what I thought was a nice architectural composition and scrambled to change my shutter speed from 1/8th second to something faster (I think it ended up at 1/45th of a sec) before the trolley started moving again. The rest of the photos here are back to 1/8th sec.

Deliberately blurred photo of a building construction site with exposed rebar columns, workers in high-visibility vests, and a blue sky above a row of buildings.

Figure 12.

Motion-blurred photo of a construction site with vertical steel rebar columns, horizontal wooden formwork, a white building behind, and workers in high-visibility vests.

Figure 13.

Intentional motion-blur photo of a construction site, with blurred orange and blue building facades, scaffolding, and workers in high-visibility vests against a streaked green foreground.

Figure 14.

So, since I'm posting pictures from just a few days ago, you might conclude that I'm caught up on my photo processing. I'm not. I've still got photos from months ago that I haven't gotten to yet. The good news is I might have some more photos to post.

DennisN · Oct 5, 2026

I've lately been into guitar modding again...

I am now the proud owner of a Telecaster, a nice and affordable Squier Affinity Tele SH FMT CRT in transparent crimson red:

Modifications:

Pickups replaced with the nice Tonerider TRT2 Hot Classics Telecaster Pickup Set
Pearloid Pickguard, and I've put a bird sticker on it because I felt like it
Pearloid Control Knob(s)
Removed Tone Control (but I will probably add it again )
Lockable Tuners
String Roller Saddles (reduces friction when bending strings)
String Roller Retainers(reduces friction when bending strings)
Handpainted pearloid pickguard screws

I really like the guitar because 1) it is thinner than normal telecasters and 2) it's got a belly cut on the back of the body, which is a bit unusual for telecasters (stratocasters almost always have belly cuts). These things make the guitar quite light and very comfortable to play. I really like it.

And my Yamaha Pacifica 112V in vintage white has been further modified:

Cream-white Yamaha Pacifica electric guitar with a gold pickguard, gold hardware and a gold-toned headstock, displayed on a wooden stand against a pale curtain.

Modifications:

Better pickups
Various gear painted with airbrush into a matching color: pickup covers, humbucker pickup frame, tremolo arm, the entire bridge, the tuners and the string roller retainers on the headstock

Now the guitar both sounds and looks better I think, but it is still not quite as comfortable as a stratocaster. Nevertheless it still is a very nice guitar.

BillTre · Oct 6, 2026

Three smiling people in red and blue life vests in a canoe on a calm lake, with a headline overlay reading "Minnesota Summer Camp for HIV-Positive Kids Closes Down-Because There Aren't Any More" and a social media post quoting a comment about Dr. Anthony Fauci.

collinsmark · Oct 6, 2026

Now that I've posted pics from last Thursday, here's some from the day before, Wednesday.

Every other Wednesday is usually a photography day for me. Wednesdays are the days (once every 2 weeks) that I go to the hospital and get a take-home chemotherapy pump disconnected from my person. That leaves me free to move about without tubes under my shirt snagging on something or causing undue suspicion (some people get antsy when others have tubes and stuff coming out from underneath their clothing). And since I'm already dressed and out of the house (exterior tubes gone after the hospital visit), I'll take my camera with me and go to some random part of town to photograph.

I went to Balboa Park yet again, this time to test out and play around with a new near-infrared (IR) filter.

Heavily blurred street scene from a slow shutter pan, with neon signs in green, pink and blue and a dark figure in a blue top at the centre.

Figure 1. this was taken through the bus window on the way to Balboa Park. It was in the Hillcrest area of town, on University Ave. I was doing my usual slow shutter (1/8 sec) and panning thing. I wish I had taken more shots because I don't rightly know what's happening here. I suspect that the "person" in the blue shirt is not actually a living person at all. Maybe a cardboard-cut-out? Poster in the window? I'm not sure. It's a mystery.

Motion-blurred photo of a cyclist in a yellow and black jersey and helmet riding toward the camera on a road, with a blurred yellow-clad figure on the left.

Figure 2. Another Cabrillo Bridge cyclist shot. I was doing my slow shutter panning thing again, this time on foot. The intentionally lopsided composition combined with the long, yellow streaks on the road and yellow attire of the people symbolize humanity's descendant's impending, eventual doom of being swallowed up by the sun if they even make it that long, of course.

Two women in sunhats on a sunlit paved plaza beneath a wooden pergola and white columns. One in a blue floral dress stands facing the other, who in a white outfit photographs her with a phone.

Figure 3. This couple looked too cute. I had to take a picture.

Black and white infrared photograph of a long rectangular reflecting pool with palm trees and an ornate arched Spanish Colonial Revival building with twin towers in the background.

Figure 4. Lilly Pond in near-infrared (IR). One of the reasons I came to Balboa Park on this day was to play around with this near-IR filter. Keep in mind this was taken handheld (no tripod) on a digital, color camera with no sensor modifications.

I plan to make a separate post about shooting near-IR pictures with digital camera shortly, assuming people are interested in such things. The plan is to add thoughts on when you might want to shoot near-IR and when you might not. And of course I'll include technical stuff you might want to consider when shooting near-IR on a digital, color camera.

Black and white photo of a white Spanish-style staircase with wrought iron balusters rising diagonally, with an arched colonnade and a lush potted plant courtyard visible beside it.

Figure 5. "Ghostly" children "haunting" an old staircase in near-IR, as ghostly children are prone to do in near-IR. (Note for the record: they're actually just normal children).

While I was at the park, I stopped in the Model Railroad Museum (I have a yearly pass for most of the museums there).

Tilt-shift photo of a miniature model town plaza with a bell tower, palm trees, and black-and-white police cruisers with light bars parked near small figures on a brick-paved square.

Figure 6. Miniature version of the "Old Police Station" of San Diego. Today, this collection of buildings/structures is called "The Headquarters at Seaport District." It used to be where the San Diego police headquarters were located. Now there's bars, restaurants, and a museum there (museum of the old police station and jail). I should stop by with my camera. I believe there are some good pics to be had there.

Miniature model railroad layout of a Spanish Colonial Revival station with red tile roofs, arched arcades, gold domed towers and palm trees, with a Santa Fe sign and model freight cars in the foreground.

Figure 7. Miniature version of the Santa Fe Depot. This is train station that includes a station for the Trolley that I use all the time when heading downtown, and also a station for heavier passenger trains like AmTrak and whatnot. The right side of the structure (as shown above) no longer exists. It seems to have been removed at some point.

Black and white photograph of a Spanish Colonial Revival station building with domed towers, arched arcades and red tile roofs, with rows of early automobiles and a bus parked on a wide plaza crossed by streetcar tracks and overhead wires.

Figure 8. Old picture of Santa Fe Depot. This photo was not taken by me. From what I'm led to believe, the photographer of this picture is "officially" unknown, i.e., lost to the sands of time. Note the front structure of the building as seen from this angle.

Street scene of a cream-colored Spanish Revival station building with arched openings and a tiled dome, framed by palm trees and tall glass high-rise towers under a deep blue sky.

Figure 9. Here's an Image I took of the Santa Fe Depot structure just a few weeks ago from approximately the same angle as in Figure 8. Notice the old front of the structure has since been removed (see Fig. 8 for a comparison).

Black and white infrared photo of a park path with bright white foliage, a wooden footbridge and railings, a small shelter with a lamp, and a lone pedestrian walking away toward a tall building.

Figure 10. Okay, we've left Balboa Park now and are heading home. This pic is just a modest, non-fancy, apartment building shot in near-IR. In normal, visible light this walkway doesn't look particularity special at all. But in near-IR all the foliage and greenery are emphasized, while some of the boring, manmade stuff is de-emphasized. More on that later in a future post.

DennisN · Oct 7, 2026

collinsmark said:

So, since I'm posting pictures from just a few days ago, you might conclude that I'm caught up on my photo processing. I'm not.

Hehe, I know how it is!

collinsmark said:

I've still got photos from months ago that I haven't gotten to yet.

I can very well understand that, it's the same here.

collinsmark · Oct 8, 2026

Here's my thoughts on shooting near-infrared (near-IR) with a color, digital camera.

So I picked up a Infrared filter compatible with several lenses within my Leica M system. I had shot some near-IR on my old Nikon/Nikkor system, but those filters were of a different thread size; thus the need for a new filter.

Silver Leica M rangefinder camera with a silver lens and a viewfinder accessory on top, next to a Hoya Creative 46 mm infrared R72 filter in its blue plastic packaging.

Figure 1. Near-IR filter screwed into a lens on my Leica system. R72 is the filter type, representing the cuttoff wavelength, blocking light with wavelengths below 720 nm. The "46" is just the filter thread size, meaning it will screw into lenses with a 46 mm thread diameter; this obviously may be different for different lenses.

Thought #1: If you get one, make sure it matches your thread diameter. Also, this might not be a good application for square or magnetic filters, unless light leakage is properly handled: any light leakage around the sides of the near-IR filter (or even through the bayonet between your lens and camera) will wash everything out. A screw-on filter is a good choice here. (If you have a light-leakage problem in your bayonet, a simple hair scrunchy might fix the problem).

Thought #2: 720 nm (R72) seems to me to be a good cuttoff wavelength/filter type for a normal, digital, color camera if you're unsure on that. There are other filters on the market with different cuttoff wavelengths. The more cuttoff wavelength delves into the infrared, the more it has to fight the rolloff of the IR-cutoff filter that's built into your camera's sensor (more on that later). To me, 720 nm seems to be a fair compromise.

Black and white near-infrared photo of a street lined with parked cars, palm trees and bright white foliage, with a Habit Burger Grill storefront behind them.

Figure 2. First light for the new, near-IR filter. I did some post-processing on this image in Lightroom to convert it to black-and-white (B&W), and play with contrast and whatnot. So, no, this isn't directly out of the camera. But I find it really cool. I took the photo at a bus stop not far from where I live, so I've looked at this scenery countless times. Seeing this same location in infrared is pretty trippy. Aside from looking trippy, the filter seems to introduce a little vignetting; I did not adjust the vignetting in Lightroom, that's all from the filter.

Thought #3: The Bayer filter in your color camera will reduce the effective resolution of your near-IR images to approximately 1/4 of what they are normally. This is because in order to optimize signal to noise ratio (SNR) you should heavily favor the red channel as the input to your images.

[Edit: the 1/4 reduction in resolution figure might be a bit exaggerated, but only because even without any near-IR shenanigans the Bayer filter reduces the effective resolution somewhat. The point is that with the near-IR filter attached, the effective resolution will be reduced significantly more than what the Bayer filter normally does.]

It stands to reason that the red channel should dominate your signal input when shooting near-infrared. I mean ideally, ALL the signal should be in the red channel. In practice, the Bayer filter isn't ideal and some signal is present in the blue and green channels, but they will just be a noisy mess.

Do not try to use "auto white balance," "auto-color," or "auto levels" unless you're conformable with really, really, unnecessarily noisy pictures. These auto-settings will boost the B and G channels to match the R, but you don't want that. The real signal is almost completely in the R channel, and thus the R channel should be the primary source before B&W conversion.

Diagram of a color digital sensor's Bayer filter: a 3D grid of blue, green and red filter cells above a grey sensor array, plus three panels showing blue, green and red light each passing a filter layer to reach the sensor, with the resulting mosaic patterns below.

Figure 3. Only about 1/4 of the pixels correspond to the R channel in your color sensor, and the R channel is where your near-IR data is going to be.

When shooting near-IR, you should expect that some of the fine detail you may be used to won't be there. You won't be able to crop in on your photos as much as usual.

For example, if you have a 24 megapixel (MP) camera, when shooting with a near-IR filter, expect the results to be similar to shooting with a 6 MP camera without the filter, and then upsampling to 24 MP. Detail will be lost.

To get the best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), heavily favor the R channel before B&W conversion. If your photo processing software allows, take all (or at least most) of your data from the R channel. (This advice may be overly simplistic, even it it's not bad advice. See below in a couple paragraphs for an explanation.)

Here's what I do in Lightroom when adjusting the white balance. I just adjust the sliders all the way to the right to avoid blues and greens (See Fig. 4.)

Lightroom white balance panel showing Reset WB set to Custom, Temp slider at 50000 and Tint slider at +150, with a red arrow pointing to the Custom dropdown.

Figure 4. In Lightroom, I slide the Temp and Tint sliders to the right, to lessen the influence of B and G data.

You can make the argument that the above is wrong and the SNR is optimized by making no color balance adjustments at all, and simply add the pixel values of each corresponding raw color pixel (of which the R channel pixel will naturally will have the higher value) to create the corresponding B&W pixel. And yes, that may be true, but its correct implementation depends on the B&W profile is used to create the B&W conversion. So, just to play it safe, I bias my data to the R-channel.

In the future, if I produce an image that I want to frame or enter it into a contest, I might be more careful about pre-B&W conversion color balance. but unti then, biasing to the R-channel doesn't hurt the SNR much, if it even hurts it at all (to any significant amount).

Though #4: You're also fighting the IR-cut filter that's part of the color sensor. This is in addition to the Bayer filter.

Maybe I should have started with this one. Plenty of uniformed photographers will propagate the false myth that, "You can't do near-IR photography with a digital camera unless you modify the sensor to remove the IR-cut filter. The sensor's IR-cut filter blocks all the near-IR light making near-IR photography impossible with that camera." That claim is false.

Well, it's partially false. It's not impossible. As a matter of fact doing near-IR photography with a camera's IR-cut filter intact is very possible. The IR-cut filter is not ideal, and cutoff has a "rolloff" to it. As the wavlenths become greater, the attenuation from the IR-cut filter becomes greater. It doesn't cut the IR out completely.

But iit is true that your near-IR filter screwed on to the front of your lens is fighting IR-cut filter in your sensor. The only photons that get through are those lucky enough to make it through both filters (not to mention the Bayer filter too).

To remedy this, be prepared to crank up the ISO a lot. Consider doing long exposures, even on a bright and sunny day.

In my case, the effective attenuation of adding near-IR filter is roughly about 10 1/2 stops (a.k.a., steps). That's huge. But it's not impossible.

Thought #5: Let's do a comparison between "with and without" the near-IR filter.

Long rectangular reflecting pool in a formal garden, with a Spanish Colonial Revival building with ornate towers and arcades reflected in the still water, flanked by palm trees under a clear blue sky.

Figure 5. Normal color photo of the Lily Pond taken at the wrong time of year. No near-IR filter present. Handheld. ISO 64, 1/250 sec.

The image shown in Fig. 5 was taken after the autumn equinox, making the the wrong time of year for this subject. As I've mentioned before, this subject should be photographed closer to the summer solstice around sunset such that the sun is north of west, shining some sunlight onto the north-facing wall on the other side of the Lily Pond.

The way it is here (Fig. 5), the north facing wall is in the shade and it's just all wrong. This is not a good photograph compared to what it could be.

Black and white photo of the Balboa Park reflecting pool in San Diego, with palm trees and ornate Spanish Colonial Revival buildings and towers reflected in the still water.

Figure 6. Same as Fig. 5, but converted to B&W, and some additional retouching done in a vain attempt to rescue the crappy image as much as I could. (No near-IR filter present.) No retouching can save this photo. It is bland and lifeless.

Converting it to B&W didn''t help. Without the proper lighting, the image is doomed. The architecture remains bland and 2-dimentional. It's like eating a stack of pancakes with no syrup. Just look at that photograph. It's lifeless. It's soulless. What a dump.

But what if...

What if instead of having the architecture be the main subject, let's de-emphasize that and instead emphasize the palm trees and flora and maybe even the people. How do we do that? That's where the near-IR filter comes in. Let's re-take the photo with near-IR filter screwed onto the lens.

Near-infrared photo of the Balboa Park reflecting pool with palm trees and ornate arched buildings, rendered in red and pink tones.

Figure 7. Lilly Pond photograph with near-IR filter attached. Handheld. ISO 50000, 1/125 sec. Minimal edits in Lightroom, just enough to export it to a JPEG format.

The near-IR photo is shown in Fig. 7. Note that it looks very red. Of course it looks red. Nearly all the data is in the R-channel because it's near infrared. that's how wavelengths work. Also note the jump in ISO from 64 to 50000, and a 1 step decrease in shutter speed. Jaysus.

So now to convert to B&W and do some normal post-processing.

Black and white infrared photo of the Balboa Park lily pond, with palm trees glowing white, ornate towers and arcades reflected in the still water.

Figure 8. Same as Fig. 7 but after conversion to B&W and some additional post-processing. (Near-IR filter attached.) Lookin' pretty good.

The final image is way better with the near-IR filter attached (see Fig. 8). We changed the emphasis from the blandly lit architecture (giving up on that) to the trees and foliage. The people look nice and ghostly too. Definitely a better photograph.

While it's not obvious unless you zoom in, the near-IR version of the photograph is way noisier than the photo without the filter. But I think this just gives it some added character. 'Like an old-timey thing.

Thought #6: In conclusion, if you want to de-emphasize water & most manmade structures, and instead emphasize trees and plants, particularly in the sunlight, and humans too, even though they look a little weird, then near-IR might be a good option.

Thought #7: On the other hand, if you want the water or manmade structures to be the central focus of the image, and you want to minimize distractions from plants, near-IR can backfire and make your image worse.

Wooded park scene with a dirt path curving past a clipped hedge, a tree with a pale trunk on the left, and a concrete bridge deck with pillars in the background.

Figure 9. No near-IR filter.

The image in Fig. 9 is not a good photo, but it shows a location that has some potential. If I were to get off my bum and walk around to the other side of the shrubbery, maybe I could get some leading lines directing the eyes to the interesting looking bridge in the distance.

Let's see how it looks in near-IR.

Black-and-white near-infrared photo of a leafy park path curving toward a stone arch bridge, with bright, glowing foliage under dark tree canopies.

Figure 10. Near-IR filter attached.

Ahh Jasus, make it stop. Make it stop (see Fig. 10). My eyes. They're burning. The filter made it worse. so much worse. What happened to the potential of leading lines? And the bridge: it's just gone. All gone. All of it gone. I only see a cacophony of plants and distractions. Nothing good has come of this. Nothing. Jaysus.

Black and white near-infrared photo of a fountain jet rising from a pool, with palm trees and bright foliage behind it and a figure walking on a path to the right.

Figure 11. Another near-IR image that did not turn out so well.

The Bea Evenson Fountain in Balboa Park does not look so great in near-IR either. At least not from the perspective I chose (see Fig. 11). Don't get me wrong, the trees in the background look great, but they're not the intended focus.

Thought #8: Near-IR photographs can be kind of hit-or-miss. But I'll be carrying around the filter in my camera bag for sure.

Andy Resnick · Oct 8, 2026

collinsmark said:

Here's my thoughts on shooting near-infrared (near-IR) with a color, digital camera.

This post was incredibly helpful- thanks! Just wondering, have you done any testing like, for example, trying to see if you can image the light from a tv remote (or some other remote that uses IR LEDs)?

collinsmark · Oct 8, 2026

Andy Resnick said:

This post was incredibly helpful- thanks! Just wondering, have you done any testing like, for example, trying to see if you can image the light from a tv remote (or some other remote that uses IR LEDs)?

Yes and yes. But you don't need a special near-IR filter to see that effect. Just point your camera as-is (even if it's a cell phone or webcam; most any digital camera will do) at the remote control and look at your camera's "live view" screen, where you can "see" what the camera sees, then press buttons on the remote. You should see the remote's IR LEDs light up by looking through the digital camera (so to speak).

The near-IR filter merely blocks out any distracting visible light, making the effect more pronounced, assuming the camera has the ability to adjust its ISO and/or exposure time accordingly.

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