Making images in infrared is a very artistic style of photography. The creative choices you can make are nearly endless, starting with the type of IR filter you get installed in your camera, the subjects and compositions you choose, and the processing you apply to finish the image. Depending on the IR filter in your camera, post processing can be a huge part of making the image. For example, with a deep IR filter (850 nm), the image needs very little processing, but you are limited in your creative processing choices. For the image below, I used a deep IR filter to create a very dark sky and render the ocotillo branches bright white. With a deep IR filter, your image will always be a high contrast black and white image. Some people prefer this look and type of IR filter. However, you can achieve the same look through post processing with other types of filters that also give you more options for the final look of your image.
Ocotillo plant photographed with a 850 nm IR filter
My preferred choice is the super color (590 nm) IR filter. It passes a small amount of visible light through to the camera sensor along with the infrared light waves. If you are shooting raw, the resultant image out of the camera will be somewhat reminiscent of a alien landscape that you might think is on Mars (given the strong red tint).
Example of what a raw image file from a super color IR filter looks like straight out of the camera
Your first task in post processing an IR raw image is to remove or reduce some of the red color cast in the image using raw conversion software. While reducing the red saturation levels, you can also adjust highlights, shadows, contrast, sharpness, and other needed corrections that you would apply to any image you process. When processing raw IR images, I would suggest finding a series of settings in the raw converter that works well for you, and save it as a preset that can be loaded anytime you process an image using the same type of IR filter. If you prefer to shoot in jpeg, many of these adjustments will be done in-camera, but you will have less control over the outcome. Whether you shoot in raw and do the conversion yourself, or set your camera to shoot in jpeg, your resultant image should look similar to the image below:
Image taken with a 590 nm Super Color IR filter after raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw
Some people like this particular look for their infrared images, and stop their processing at this point. Depending upon the subject material, it may be the best post processing creative choice. For my tastes, blue foliage and a rust colored sky is too unnatural for most images. There are some simple processing steps that I feel yield more attractive, if not more natural, looking images. The next step is to perform a “channel swap” in photoshop. This involves opening a channel swap adjustment layer, and flipping the red and blue channel sliders. You can learn more about channel swapping on the web. I would make two points at this juncture in your post processing….first, don’t be confined to the most basic settings for doing the channel swap. Experiment with moving all the sliders to find the values for red, green, and blue for each channel that gives you the results you like best. Save these settings as a channel swap preset in photoshop that can be loaded anytime you are doing a channel swap on an IR image. I have a number of these channel swap presets saved for processing different types of IR subjects; however, I have one or two that I use most often, and will make fine adjustments after loading them based on what I think makes each image look best. If you do the basic red and blue channel swap, the resultant “faux color” image turns your sky blue, and your foliage a nice gold color.
Red and Blue Channel Swap to create the “goldie” IR look
Another creative choice for post processing is to desaturate your foliage (primarily the yellow and red color sliders) in a HSL Layer in Photoshop. You may have to do this selectively for parts of your image by applying a layer mask to your HSL adjustment, but often making global changes with the sliders will do the trick. This will retain the blue sky, but remove the gold tones from the image.
Red and Blue Channel Swap with the foliage desaturated in an HSL layer
One of the most common creative choices for post processing is to apply a black and white conversion layer in photoshop after doing your channel swap. The color information within the image gives you a tremendous amount of control on how the black and white image will look. Adjusting the different color sliders in the black and white conversion adjustment layer controls the luminance for different parts of the image based on their tones prior to the conversion. Once you find a series of black and white slider settings that you like, save them as a preset for black and white IR images. Super color IR provides you with excellent source material to make superb (and unique) black and white images!
A red and blue channel swap with an added black and white conversion layer
The three processing options described above are my usual go-to creative choices for most IR images using my super color IR camera. Sometimes, however, I feel like adding a splash of selective color can really take the image to another level. This is usually done by separately processing a duplicate raw image, where the red tint is not desaturated for a part of the image in raw conversion, or the color of a certain part of the image is manipulated by adjusting the hue, saturation, and lightness sliders in a HSL layer. The duplicate image can be layered on top of your already processed IR image, and the select portion of the duplicate image you want can be blended into the underlying background image using a layer mask. This process is a bit more involved, but it can give you great results by adding selective colors to an area of interest in your image.
Red tint of the raw image retained for the brick color of the building in a duplicate image, which was layered and blended into a “goldie” red and blue channel swap background image
Same duplicate, layered and blended into a background image that has been processed using a black and white conversion layer
Making IR images offers many creative choices that can be obtained through your post processing. If it sounds complicated and time consuming, sometimes it is. If you save your settings for processing IR images as presets at each step along the way, you can save a lot of time and greatly simplify processing your images.