Infrared Cactus in the Desert with Bob Coates and His Platypod Max

Words and photos by Bob Coates

The desert is a harsh mistress. Everything is sharp, even the plants. I wanted to show how desolate, but also how beautiful the cactus and volcanic mountains could be. This called for infrared. A GH4 converted to infrared by LifePixel was the tool of choice.

Mounted on the Platypod Max, I was able to comfortably get a very low angle with a long lens to compress the scene. Below is my setup:

The Setup with Platypod Max:

I was able to get super sharp focus throughout the scene by making three exposures with focus on the foreground, cactus and background. These were stacked in Photoshop and blended together. Below is the final image after post-processing.

Want to see more of the post-production details for the final image? Check out the blog post on Photofocus as Bob shows you his specific steps for focus stacking images for increased depth of field.

The Final Image:

Check out more of Bob's work at: successful-photographer.com or http://coatesart.net