How to achieve Infrared colours for free
Many photographers spend money on modified cameras and specialised filters to see the surreal colours of the infrared spectrum. However, using a simple technique in Photoshop, you can achieve the same dreamlike scenes.
You will need:
- A camera (duh)
- Adobe Photoshop 5.0 or later
We’re going to be using a technique called Channel Swapping to turn this image…
Into this one.
Channel Swapping
First, open up Photoshop and open the Channel Mixer. Each output channel (red, green and blue) has three values.
The idea is to swap the main values of different outputs with each other. In this example, I’ve swapped the green and blue channels.
You can stack these on top of each other to get different colour palettes. I usually follow up a Green/Blue swap with a Green/Red swap to get a pink sky.
It’s also handy to use Hue/Saturation to adjust the exposure for foliage by colour and clean up the colour palette a bit more, and voila!
That’s all you need to replicate the colours of the infrared spectrum. Since you made it to the end, I’ve got some gifts for you.
Like these?
Every single image in this grid is available for both commercial and personal use and can be downloaded from Unsplash without attribution.
Basically, do what you want. Just don’t sell them as is, ok?
Thanks for reading!
If you want to see more of my work, you can find me at…
My website, where I show my complete projects
Instagram, where I post infrared pictures in the day, and neon street photography at night
Behance, where I post complete projects, including a recent look at the quaint beauty of canalside homes through infrared colours
Twitter, where I share other artists’ work, and occasionally use words to express myself
Unsplash, where I create free stock images
Pinterest, where I essentially try to boost my SEO to be honest
And feel free to contact me at etumusiime96@gmail.com.
