Customer Reviews

Digital Infrared Photography (Photo Workshop)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I received my book a few day ago, I really could not put it down. Deborah has a style of writing that is easy yet very informative. This is the first IR book I've had that made IR digital photography seem so approachable and within reach...no matter what your level of expertise. The different assignments certainly make it easy to get started in a very concrete way. This book is loaded with information on how to be creative with your infrared work in the camera and later in the computer with different editing programs. It really is a must if you want to get the very best out of your infrared work with a filter over your lens or with a converted camera.

Being familiar with Photo Workshop books, I was ecstatic when I found this on Infrared. The teaching process Sandidge uses in this work is truly just what those who embrace infrared photoraphy needed. Two things stand out for me. First, every photo in the book has the details of the shot which enables one to learn how to do it. Secondly, each chapter has an assignment which you can complete and upload a photo for others to see and comment on. Having recently gone to her website, I noticed she has the cover of this year's Nikon calendar. That in itself gives her a great deal of credibility.

The book is a must read and the author has an exceptional style in delivering the information in a very easy yet rich way. Structured in a very systematic way, each subject in the book is more interesting than the one before it. This is a book which has inspired me to learn about IR photography and it is full of ideas to take your IR photography to the next level. I really enjoyed this book. I learned new ways to look at things and how to photograph them. This book really made me realize that there is a new way to look at the world around me and how to photograph it better- the IR way.
Of two bookcases full of books on photography, this is one of the few that I consider indispensable. Highly recommended.

This book was easy to read, cover-to-cover, in less than 90 minutes. In the balance, its total content seemed represent more of a beginner's (i.e first timer's) Photoshop how-to book than an in-depth resource on infra red (IR)photography. I was put off by its very simplistic presentational style, and would not recommend it to an intermediate level photographer. While I gained a few useful tips from reading it, I found more useful material by spending 90 minutes on the internet.

If you are looking for more meat and potatoes in IR photography and you already know how to use Adobe Photoshop beyond the basics, then this book will totally disappoint you. Look elsewhere.

Having shot IR for over a year now and at the same pace been following Deb's work, the book is everything I expected it to be. Technically to the point, thorough explanations and set ups, and very informative towards certainly IR photography but digital photography in general. Being one who over the past year has picked up a lot of information about near infrared photography, Deborah's book will definitly take my interests and output to a new level. This book is filled with the type of structured information one could only expect from a professional photographer like Deborah Sandidge.

After buying 7 or 8 books on IR photography, finally one that has something to share besides a bunch of the author's pictures. The author puts in chapter after chapter of valuable insights on how best to use your Infrared converted camera. I have been shooting IR for 6 years, and thought I had a handle on the whole technique. Deborah Sandidge has opened my eyes to many more possibilities for this type of photography. I got the referral for the book from Life Pixel, a company who has converted few cameras to Infrared for me in the past. A great reference source. I'm going through it for the third time, and trying the suggested exercises.

I enjoyed learning the technical aspects of infrared lighting and how it differs from from normal photography (including spectral graphs and histograms) and I was pleasantly surprised at all the beautiful example photos along with the camera settings she used for capturing the images. Deborah provides many tips about how to think & what to be aware of when composing to shoot for IR. It is not only a technical book about shooting in infrared, it is also a great resource of how to compose for IR (how to think the way the IR sensor will interpret the light) and landscape techniques for IR and any type of photography. She includes lots of photoshop tips, Orton effect, mirrored images, painting with light, HDR imaging (one of my favorites) and lists of useful camera equipment such as IR filters (& places to convert your DSLR for IR), lenses, tripods, software, etc... I have read & re-read many of these chapters and think of it as more of a workbook than something you read and put on the shelf. She has assignments in the chapters and a website for posting & sharing these assignments. I have read so many photography books over the years (Bryan Peterson, Jim Zuckerman, Scott Kelby, Ben Willmore) and this is my favorite book because it is loaded with useful & diverse information for any type of photography.
The tips for using PhotoMatix, Photoshop & various filters is worth the price of this book alone but when she is able to get me to think "outside of the box" then she has really won me over. I am seeing things differently which has caused me to slow down and rethink my shot before I start snapping away. Some of the standard rules (landscape/3rds/shapes & patterns) still apply but she also gets you to think how these rules can be broken to capture an even better photograph.
This is a great book for photography in general but it is essential for anyone wanting to learn about shooting in infrared. I think Lifepixel should include this book with every camera they convert for IR.
Thank you for the wonderful book Deborah.

I have been shooting infrared for over 25 years initially with film cameras and more recently with a digital SLR converted to infrared. I've even given my share of "how to "instruction.
Many students have asked if I was going to write a book about the subject. I tell them if they want to get to the cutting edge in this medium they need to buy Deborah Sandidge's book.
What they need to know is in there. The workshop is an ideal method in which to learn this sometimes tricky but always rewarding way of capturing the unseen world around us.
Congratulations to Ms. Sandidge for raising the bar on not just Digital Infrared Photography instruction but photographic instruction in general.

Recently I started getting into digital IR photography. I got most of the basic information about IR photo shooting and simple RAW image conversion from the internet first. But I realized pretty soon that I wanted to gain more detailed knowledge of IR photography and the conversion of photos in software programs like PS. I screened several available books about IR photography published in the past few years and finally decided to get the one from D. Sandidge. It turned out to be an excellent choice: I was afraid that this book will focus endlessly on very basic principles but this is definetely not the case. The book is written for more professional users of DSLR cameras, which are either fully converted for IR or just by adding filters onto lenses to achive the same or similar effects. The book is full of very good examples of IR photographies supporting the context in the chapters. I gained a lot from the more advanced workshop chapters including HDR with IR photographies and merging color/IR photos. The book is a wonderful summary of creative IR possibilities which can be achieved with digital SLR cameras and the right software processing afterwards. The book is extremely well written, and the workshop steps are clearly defined (bold print to find the specific menus in the programs). Screenshots support those step-by-step tutorials.
The only negative remark I can make is the focus on mostly commercially available software filters in the last few book chapters. It is not stated clearly in the book that those software filters are no freeware and need to be purchased seperately. Here I wish the author would have mostly stayed with the available PS program filters or referring to freeware filter plugins. But this is a minor issue. Overall I can highly recommend this book since it will open up a complete new way to do creative photography.