Digital false colour infrared experiment

[Helen B]

Fake False Colour Infrared

I don't usually try to imitate film with digital, but now that Ektachrome Infrared film (EIR) is no longer made, I though that I would have a go at imitating 'false colour infrared' film with a single exposure from a digital camera. It is easy enough to imitate with three exposures.

I used to shoot EIR with a deep yellow filter. That resulted in a three-colour image, with source infrared being associated with the red image, source red with the green image and source green with the blue image - ie everything is shifted across one band and source blue drops off the end.

This is my first attempt at that same transformation, using only one exposure. The normal colour, no infrared image is shown for comparison. Note how the green square in the Colorchecker turns to blue, but the green foliage that looks almost the same in the visible shot turns magenta because of the presence of infrared. Also notice the difference in the infrared reflectance of the different parts of the Colorchecker.

Next I will work on calibrating the three channels more carefully, and trying different yellow filters.

Best,
Helen