In this article, we’re going to show you the fourth way, which is creating an infrared effect in Photoshop. For those who don’t have any of the above equipment and already have Adobe Photoshop, this will be a great introduction to replicating the false-color infrared look.
What Is Infrared?
The infrared spectrum is a relatively large range of light that’s not visible to human beings. Its frequency range is such that only specialized gear can filter it out from visible light. We go in-depth about it in our beginner’s guide to infrared photography.
What Images Work Best?
Since we are only replicating, at best, a false-color infrared effect in Photoshop, we’re not going to be able to reproduce images that look exactly like they were photographed on infrared film, by a camera, or through a lens filter. Instead, we’re going to aim for an approximation that showcases the red hues that often result from the false-color infrared effect.
What do we mean by false color? It’s the technical term for introducing color to an infrared image where color doesn’t exist. This is not to be confused with creating a black and white infrared effect, which is another kind of infrared photography.
So, what images are going to work best? You’ll want to use images that have a lot of green, generally speaking. Landscapes and nature images usually work best. But that’s not to say that these images will always work perfectly with what we’re about to show you.
Additional experimentation and creative editing may be needed and even desired beyond the scope of this tutorial to create the image that you envisioned.
And sometimes, you can use the following steps to produce creative results in portraiture, which we’ll show you at the end. You can even make photos black and white except for one color.
Step 1: Create the Main Infrared Effect
As we mentioned, we’re going to replicate the red hues that are often created in false-color infrared photography. To accomplish this, we’ll create a non-destructive workflow using adjustment layers. We’ll also swap the red and blue channels, which is the magic recipe that makes the infrared effect possible.
The above is the original image that we’ll be using. You can download it from Pexels if you want to follow along.
With the image loaded into Photoshop, create an Invert adjustment layer. Change the blend mode to Color. Create a Channel Mixer adjustment layer. In the Red channel, change the Red from +100 percent to zero. While in the Red channel, change the Blue to 100 percent. Change the Output Channel to Blue. Change the Red channel to 100 percent. While in the Blue channel, change the Blue to zero. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. From the dropdown menu, choose Reds. Adjust the Hue slider to fine-tune the color. We chose -25 for this image. Adjust the Saturation slider to add more color. We chose +43 for this image. We also re-adjusted the Hue slider to -13 to dial-in a more reddish hue.
Every image will be different and require different adjustments to the Hue and Saturation sliders. It all depends on your personal preference for the image.
Another option at the end of Step 12 is to go back to the Master channel and adjust the Hue and Saturation sliders.
This will also affect any other colors that may be present, but for this image, it makes for a nice adjustment.
Step 2: Group the Layers Together
This is an optional step, but it really helps organize your layer stack, especially if you intend to use other Photoshop techniques to enhance your infrared images.
Click on the Hue/Saturation layer to make it active. Press Shift + Click on the Invert layer. Press Ctrl + G to group the layers together. Double-click on the name field of the new Folder. Name it Infrared. Press Enter to accept changes.
In the end, we’ll show you how to create a Photoshop Action for what we’ve done so far so that you can experiment with different images without going through all the work again for each one. We show you how to use Photoshop Actions to save time.
Step 3: Add the Glow for the Finishing Touch
Another common trait of many infrared images is a somewhat dreamy or glow effect that makes the image look otherworldly. This finishing touch will greatly enhance the overall infrared look for many of your images, regardless of genre.
Create a Curves adjustment layer. Create a point in the midtones and raise it close to the top as shown. Press Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E to create a Stamp Visible layer. Right-click on the Stamp Visible layer and choose Create Smart Object. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Change the Radius slider to add a moderate blur. For this image, we chose 12. 5. Press OK. Change the blend mode of the Stamp Visible layer to Multiply.
This final step is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Photoshop editing. How far you push your creative infrared conversions is up to you. You can even use third-party plugins like the NIK Collection to add color and analog effects.
An Example of the IR Effect on a Portrait
Who’s to say that infrared effects can only be applied to landscapes and nature photos? If you choose the right images, the methods that we showed you could possibly add a creative dimension to your portraiture that you may not have considered.
If you compare the two images, you can see how we manipulated the green in the original to transform it into something else entirely. All that we did was go to the Master channel in the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and play with the Hue and Saturation sliders at the end of Step 1.
Create a Photoshop Infrared Action to Save Time
The first two steps in this article can be programmed into a Photoshop Action that will save you a lot of time when you create infrared images in Photoshop. Let’s see how this can be done.
Go to the Actions icon, Press Alt + F9, or go to Windows > Actions. Click on the Create New Action icon (+). Name the Action Infrared. The other fields are optional, depending on how you use Actions. Then press Record. Repeat all the instructions from Steps 1 and 2. When you’re finished, click on the Stop icon (the square).
Important note: you’ll have to go back to the Hue and Saturation sliders in the Red channel to make adjustments for each infrared image that you create in Photoshop. But other than that, most of the work is done for you.
The Infrared Photoshop Action would then be available for any images that you’d like to convert to infrared in the Actions menu. You’d simply have to locate it and press Play.
Explore the World of Infrared in Photoshop
If you don’t have the right gear to take infrared pictures, that’s no problem when you have Photoshop at your disposal. We’ve shown you how to replicate the false-color infrared effect for images that showcase green hues. And with our useful Photoshop Action, you’ll be able to create spectacular infrared images in Photoshop without breaking the bank purchasing new gear.
