Color IR and flowers

[Rolland Rainbow Elliott <X93ELLIOTT1@xxxxxxxxx>]

C4N2H5O <C4N2H5O@xxxxxxx>
Subject: IR and Horticulture
You wrote:
>Does anyone have any experience with flowers and 
color IR? Any >speciallighting or filter conciderations 
would be appreciated as >well.  


I've shot several pictures of various flowers with Color
 IR film.  The flowers that I have taken pictures of were 
all just common yard and garden flowers, like roses, 
tulips, and some flowers that grew on vines and 
bushes.  

When using a #12 yellow filter (haven't had time to 
play around with using different color filters), my 
general impression is that the flowers, and foilage 
surrounding them reflect a lot of IR light and therefore 
the final image tends to be dominated by red and 
magenta colors.  Actually most flower's that I've taken 
pictures of have come out yellow on IR film, regardless
 of their color to our eyes under natural light.  I'm sure 
there are exceptions, and the one I've already noted is
that white flowers tend to remain white on color IR film.

If your flower is surrounded by green foilage (and 
many of them tend to be) my suggestion is to try to get 
a VERY low camera angel so that you get some sky in 
the picture, which will add some color contrast to your
 picture.  In my opinion, a background that just contains
 green leaves will create too much magenta in the 
image. If you can't get the sky, try to find another 
background that will contrast with the flower's colors, 
and thus make it jump out of the image.

As with regular flower photography try to shoot under 
diffuse lighting if you want to create a soft, gentle, 
flowery look; this is even more important with color IR, 
because it is such a contrasty film.  Try spraying some 
water on the flowers with a very fine spray bottle to 
create artifical dew.  Water with some glycerine will 
help the drops hold their shape and stay in place.  

Have fun!
The flowers are just starting to bloom, here in Kalamazoo, MI
Peace Rolland.
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