How do you get the look of color infrared film, and what filter does it use?
Asked 8/31/2015
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I’m interested in trying infrared film photography, especially the saturated, vintage-looking style often associated with some portrait and landscape work. I’m not sure whether that look is actually from true color infrared film or mostly from processing and editing.
Is that kind of saturated false-color look really produced by infrared film, or could it just be cross-processing/post-processing? Also, for true color infrared film, what filter is typically used on the lens: red, yellow, or orange?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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I wouldn't like to sound like capitain obvious, but first of all you have to open your mind to the possibility that 90% of the picture you saw by clicking on that link are post-processed. There is this method called Cross-Processing, which alters the color of your picture and that is nowadays very popular amongst photographers. The pictures you are showing could be then a result of this technique by using red and yellow as "main colors". Infrared images are pictures that are taken only within the infrared spectrum, which is nothing like visible light. As far as I know, infrared films capture a scale of greys depending on the infrared frequency emitted by the source. Some film used to capture visible light too, so if you wanted to filter the last frequencies, you would have needed of course a filter (let me explain this a little bit later). Now, there is a variety of methods to obtain (so called) "infrared photography" images by using post-processing software too, so once again don't think people obtain what you want to achieve with analog-cameras. Most don't.
About filters: knowing now that infrared photography could not exactly be what you mean, if you desire to snap pictures with an analog camera loaded with infrared (color) film (assuming you still have one - since they have been discontinued) and you want to use a filter to obtain "infrared pictures", then buy an infrared filter. This kind of filter blocks all the visible light and lets only IR radiation pass through. This has nothing to do with red or yellow, since those colors are part of the visible light's spectrum.
If you, anyway, want to achieve a particular effect with your pictures, by using normal filters (red and yellow for example), then my suggestion would be to experiment with red filters (frequency-wise red is the nearest color to infrared spectrum).
Originally by user35383. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user35383
10y ago
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That look is not necessarily from infrared film. Many images with a saturated, vintage palette are heavily post-processed, and cross-processing is a common way to get unusual color shifts.
For true color infrared film, the classic example was Kodak Ektachrome EIR. It produced false-color results rather than normal color: foliage that reflects infrared often rendered red, while other visible colors shifted in unusual ways. That distinctive “red foliage” look is much more characteristic of real color IR film than a general warm vintage look.
With color IR film, yellow or orange filters were commonly used to suppress shorter visible wavelengths and emphasize the film’s infrared response. A red filter may be used in some infrared work, but for Kodak EIR specifically, yellow/orange filtration is the typical guidance mentioned in the answers.
Also note: Kodak EIR was discontinued in 2007, so many modern examples of this aesthetic are either older work, digital infrared capture, or conventional film/digital images altered in processing.
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