More Infrared from the IR-Converted Nikon D40

I can tell that working with the color balances of processed IR photos is going to take a lot of practice! Here are the results of my quick trip outside, with my handy "new" camera snapping away.

Workflow? Import to Lightroom. Mess with color balance, cool it down until green branches have a soft blue hue w/reds at a manageable level (vs. whole photo super saturated with red). Edit in Photoshop (directly from Lightroom). I created an action in Photoshop that switches the red and blue channels and then desaturates the reds and magentas. Tweak the saturation levels a little bit. Save photo which is picked back up in Lightroom. Manipulate the exposure, whites, clarity, etc. Crop. Tada! This process seriously only takes a couple minutes per photo.

Considering I can now create a photo now from start to finish quicker than ONLY taking the photo via the old filter method, I'm quite happy! Someday I'll mess with the "white balance" profile, using the .DNG converter and editor...someday. :)

UPDATE! I just couldn't go to sleep tonight with three of the photos being so PURPLE. I almost worked on the chapel one, too, but just have to draw the line somewhere. I've placed the updated photos below the ones I originally posted, so you could compare the coloring.

Flickr gallery of photos: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjQNA9pi

First Edit of IR photo.

Updated photo.

First edit of the IR photo.

Edited color balance of the IR photo.  THIS one, in the end, was my favorite balance of colors in the batch. I would still like more of the pink tint taken out, which may happen after I get a better color profile calibrated w/DNG editor. 

Left the coloring of this photo alone. Good enough for tonight. 

THIS one is WAS my favorite balance of colors from post processing. I like the soft touch of blue in the sky. Originally, the church sign out front and the road were also blue. I desturated them in Lightroom to better balance off the whites and grays. The more I look at this photo, the more green tint I see to it, hmmm...

I wish this was a little more blue than purple. I probably should have desaturated the gate and wall here, too, like I did with the Bakers Creek Air Crash Memorial. I think this is Selfridge Gate to Arlington National Cemetery on the right. 

This is still a little green for me, but closer to what I was hoping for.