Matt Laver
pro member
Hi Folks, I'm not sure if this is the place to ask so please bump me over to the relevant forum if it's not.
I used to shoot b+w infrared film, Konica 750NM, and I really liked the effect it could give for certain types of subjects, architecture in the sun, landscape etc. It was also easy film to work with as it didn't need to be loaded or handled in the dark (as with Kodak HIE(?) film) and the filtration used on the camera didn't have to be completely opaque so I could shoot hand-held, composing with the filtration in place. The visual effects of the film were nice without being too extreme, which suited my style better.
However now that I am switching to digital capture, and 750NM isn't made anymore, I was wondering if anyone out there had any good quality techniques for digitally emulating the infrared effect?
I know you can get digital cameras that have been converted to IR wavelength sensitivity, such as Canons, or get your own camera converted, but i'm looking for a higher quality solution that would ideally allow me to use my digital back equipment without having to get it converted (not practical in cost terms).
I've tried the Channel Mixer in Photoshop approach where you convert a colour image to greyscale using the channel mixer and emphasizing one channel over another to give the look of b+w IR but the end result tends to be very 'grainy' as you are effectively taking predominantly one channel of information and making it do the work of three and thus multiplying the 'grain'.
I guess what I'm looking for is the smooth clean tonality of digital capture with the visual effect of IR, black skies, glowing foliage, great textural rendition and so on. Does anyone know of a way to do this successfully? I've heard of Photoshop plugins that mimic the effect but do they do more than the channel mixer? Or is there another technique entirely in the digital workflow that I haven't come across yet?
TIA
Matt
I used to shoot b+w infrared film, Konica 750NM, and I really liked the effect it could give for certain types of subjects, architecture in the sun, landscape etc. It was also easy film to work with as it didn't need to be loaded or handled in the dark (as with Kodak HIE(?) film) and the filtration used on the camera didn't have to be completely opaque so I could shoot hand-held, composing with the filtration in place. The visual effects of the film were nice without being too extreme, which suited my style better.
However now that I am switching to digital capture, and 750NM isn't made anymore, I was wondering if anyone out there had any good quality techniques for digitally emulating the infrared effect?
I know you can get digital cameras that have been converted to IR wavelength sensitivity, such as Canons, or get your own camera converted, but i'm looking for a higher quality solution that would ideally allow me to use my digital back equipment without having to get it converted (not practical in cost terms).
I've tried the Channel Mixer in Photoshop approach where you convert a colour image to greyscale using the channel mixer and emphasizing one channel over another to give the look of b+w IR but the end result tends to be very 'grainy' as you are effectively taking predominantly one channel of information and making it do the work of three and thus multiplying the 'grain'.
I guess what I'm looking for is the smooth clean tonality of digital capture with the visual effect of IR, black skies, glowing foliage, great textural rendition and so on. Does anyone know of a way to do this successfully? I've heard of Photoshop plugins that mimic the effect but do they do more than the channel mixer? Or is there another technique entirely in the digital workflow that I haven't come across yet?
TIA
Matt