1 Shoot brooding scenics

Use infrared and Photoshop Channels to create new landscapes

Trying to come up with new ways of shooting landscapes is always a good idea. It’s all too easy to fall into clichés with this genre, and rely too much on tried and tested techniques that produce rather predictable images.

Andy Lee went to the popular landscape honeypot of Iceland, but managed to come back with something very special indeed by shooting with an infrared SLR, then doing some creative experimentation afterwards in Photoshop.

“I took this image of horses with a Nikon D2X, converted to 720nm infrared,” he explains. “I then did some Channel swapping in Photoshop, switching the red and blue changes to create ‘faux colour’.”

Andy, whose project on dramatic and deserted roads has also attracted lots of attention, explains he has been taking pictures most of his life, but became a little more obsessive about it 10 years ago while filming a documentary for a charity in Ethiopia. “Getting lost is half the fun,” says Andy of his photographic travels.

www.andylee.co/galleries

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* Converting your camera to infrared can yield great results – but do bear in mind that it’s a very bold step to take, as the process cannot be reversed. * “Once you have found the subject you wish to shoot, be aware of its surroundings – how do they interact with your subject?” says Andy. * Andy stresses you should think carefully about how light affects the subject. “Will waiting for the ‘right light’ help you? A different time of day maybe, if you’re lucky?” * “Then use these elements to help build a narrative for the image,” Andy adds. “These are the stepping stones that help the viewer navigate the image and hopefully make them come back and see something different on the second viewing.”