Seeing infrared

Since I watched Soy Cuba a few weeks ago, a 1960s film by Mikhail Kalatozov, I've had a thing for infrared photography. Watch it if you haven't already - it's stunning to look at. At first I wasn't sure how he achieved the effect - white palm trees and sugar cane with dark dark skies - so a bit of googling and I discovered he used infrared film obtained from the Soviet Military and mixed it with black and white. There are lots of other things that make this film so good, not least the amazing tracking shots, but it's truly visually ravishing.

Infrared has an 'other worldly' quality that brings out something special in plants and foliage. I particularly love this photo by Sherri Conley, used in my last Etsy Treasury, where everything looks touched with the most glorious hoar frost. I'm still very much a beginner with Photoshop Elements but was very chuffed to see the option to create 'infrared' photos. I'm sure there are huge differences in quality when compared to the real thing but already I can tell this is an option that will be well used by me! A little bit of tinkering and I managed to transform a photograph taken today in the wonderful Spring sunshine (above), whilst keeping some of the colour on the main flower. I can't wait to use this on some of the photos I took last weekend at a manor in Buckinghamshire!