Hunt for the Blue Tree (an impossible false-color look?)

[Christoph]

As I once alluded to, I am looking for a false color style that will produce blue trees.

 

I have already tested a few things. Little has been promising so far. I tested almost the whole Lee filter swatch catalog with different combinations as well as with additional KG3 IR blocker. Either the sky becomes too green or the vegetation too pale blue.

 

The following photo is my best attempt so far and already close to my ideal. Used a stack of Hoya X1 (Green) and Hoya K2 (Yellow 8). X1 alone and K2 alone don't produce the desired result.

 

 

With X1 and K2 combo unprocessed, the trees become purple and the sky bluish-cyan. With a little work on the slider, the sky easily becomes a deep blue. However, the adjustments for blue in vegetation are much more involved. And the result is still not optimal for me. Only certain plants are blue, others remain purple or even take on yellowish tones. Here I would hope for more of a uniform blue.

 

Of course, the ideal would be a filter combination that produces this result quasi in-camera. So that few adjustments are necessary.

 

Maybe someone has another idea?

 

Sepia or chocolate/gold filters are mentioned again and again, but to be honest they never worked for me. Or the look is not what I'm looking for.

[dabateman]

Chocolate or sepia filters result in purple or lavender leaves with strong sunlight.

What we found with the Kg3/lee suba filter was that the in camera white balance setting was critical. Not nailing a good one touch white balance in camera would dramatically change the red leaves look.

That might be something to test. Whatever filters you think are promising, add to your lens. Then try cycling through various shades of white to grey to black with one touch white balance and see if that changes your look.

[GaryR]

I sometimes convert my Aerochrome-style images to blue with PS Hue/Saturation. I simply adjust the 'Reds' Hue slider, until the red foliage turns to a rich shade of blue. The sky and other elements in the image remain the same.

[Andy Perrin]

I was going to say, if I just use Tiffen 12 and white balance in-camera, I get blue trees. With no processing.

[Christoph]

Thanks for all these replies and suggestions. Would love to see all your results!

[Andy Perrin]

Look in the other thread at the DB850 + a Tiffen12 pics that Gary posted. I get similar results (not quite as blue though without the DB).

[Christoph]

I see... I appreciate it, but that's the "pre-channel-mixing" raw image. I'm looking for a more "realistic" look (like the one I posted above). Maybe I should have emphasized that in the first post. Sure, you get blue trees as a starting image - for example in Aerochrome-style images. But the trick would be to have the blue trees in the final, realistic-looking photo. In Aerochrome (maybe not the best example, I know) most of the image looks like a visible spectrum image - but the vegetation is red and the contrasts are more intense.

 

If the trees in your "dB850 + yellow 12" raw image were green and you would do the "B->R, R->G and G->B" thing, you'd get the result that I'm looking for. I guess... I hope you understand

[GaryR]

Here's what I get with the Hue/Sat adjustment.

 

The red example was taken with a FS Sigma DP2 Merrill.

Red was adjusted to blue, purple and yellow, in the other shots.

 

A recent shot with the Sony a7R+DB850/#12Y and adjusted blue version.

[Christoph]

The last one looks good, Gary! Thanks for sharing!

[Andy Perrin]

Christof, the last image is what I see after white balance on the camera with DB850+Tiffen12. I don't have to adjust anything though, unless you count the white balance.

[Cadmium]

Christoph, I think you would need leaves on the trees. Your bushes look blue...

Added: When David says "Kg3/lee suba" above, he means Kg3 2mm + Lee scuba blue #729 (stacked).

Here is a flower using the DB850, the background foliage is very blue.

 

KG3 2mm + Lee #729 (WB in camera using WhiBal card, no post)

 

[OlDoinyo]

I take it you want to produce blue foliage and a blue sky at the same time. Otherwise, any number of IRG filter candidates will do, including some you yourself have tried.

 

A 400 short pass that also passes IR might do what you are seeking, though it would produce a rather monochromatic result. Perhaps a full minus-green (deep magenta) filter would be better, though white balancing with that will be a challenge.

[colinbm]

Wow, these are all great pictures & I do like Christoph's first one too.

[Christoph]

A 400 short pass that also passes IR might do what you are seeking, though it would produce a rather monochromatic result. Perhaps a full minus-green (deep magenta) filter would be better, though white balancing with that will be a challenge.

 

Good idea! Will try that!

[Christoph]

Making progress here with great sky and neutral/brown/yellow colors. Used was instead of K2 and X1: Deep Amber (Lee, Colour Information and Spectral Charts for LEE Lighting Filters (leefilters.com)) and X1

It'll give you violet vegetation and cyan-blue sky SOOC... then I shifted the hues in the purples (-50) in Adobe Raw Converter and afterwards in the Channel Mixer at Green (Red 50, Green 50). That's it.

 

The problem is a bit that this works so well only with my Tokina lens 11-16mm. It seems that filters out the IR light more than others....

 

[colinbm]

Lavender Land...

[Christoph]

Making some progress here...

[Stefano]

This looks very cool, everything (except foliage) has a natural color.

[colinbm]

Wow Christoph

[Christoph]

Another one. The sky contrast are pretty amazing... no CPL was used...

[colinbm]

Pretty good, very different.

 

[Christoph]

Here's the filter combination that can be used to generate blue grass and trees in combination with the Midopt DB850. Actually, there are two, though I would give a slight advantage to “Dirty White” over “Full CT Straw”: The sky is minimally more blue. But actually they are identical.

 

[colinbm]

These are popping with colour.

 

[Stefano]

They look really good. The sky in the last one looks very natural.

[Christoph]

a recent shot... sooc