Today’s Post by Joe Farace
One of the more important of Farace’s Laws of the Imaging Universe is that all special effects are subject dependent.
Capturing digital infrared images with a filter or a camera that’s been converted for IR capture can be lots of fun but what about that existing library of film and digital images you already have? With maybe just a little bit of digital darkroom magic many of them would make great IR shots, so here’s are a few ways to convert non-infrared images into what might be called faux infrared.
My favorite software tool for creating faux infrared effects is Color Efex. Their Infrared Film filters emulate several different methods for capturing the Infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The filter has four black and white and five infrared color presets with sliders that let you to tweak them to suit the kind of image you’re trying to recreate or create. The previous version of Silver Efex offered two infrared emulations —Normal and Soft—but these options were deleted in the first DxO version of the plug-in. Don’t know about the latest one, because my OS can’t run it. Anybody out there have experience with it? Click Contact and let me know, thanks.
How I made the reference shot: The (above right) color reference image was made at Bryce Canyon using a Pentax K100D and smc DA 12-24mm f/4.0 ED AL (IF) lens. Exposure was 1/500 sec at f/8 and ISO 400.
The presets in Color Efex’s Infrared Film filter emulate conventional infrared black and white film and can be used to create landscape image with dark skies, bright white clouds, and glowing white vegetation—if there’s any of those elements in the original shot. See the quote at the top of this post.
The interface offers four different choices for monochrome effect in a pop-up menu and first one created the effect (at left) I liked best. But I suggest that you try them all before clicking OK.
The Infrared Film plug-in will imitate infrared color film producing colorful images with interesting color shifts and includes menu with five different presets. Based on my prior experience with shooting Kodak’s Ektachrome Professional Infrared (EIR) 35mm film the image at right produced the most realistic result.
Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and have done most of the conversions for my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix G-series cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.
New copies of my book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography are available for $21.93 with used copies from Amazon starting around sixteen bucks, as I write this. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon for $21.40 with used copies starting around two bucks, less than your next coffee at a Starbucks drive-through.