Learn How To Do The Infrared Effect To An Image Using Photoshop

The infrared effect is an effect that allows the infrared to pass through the camera sensor, but it stores most or all spectra of visible light. Thus, the effect appears to be black or dark red.



I'll show you today how landscape colors turn green to vibrant pink to simulate the effect of common camouflage colors.

We saw in the infrared camera display model, the pictures look pretty surreal when the color is mixed, especially in pictures that contain lots of trees and leaves. We will repeat the effect using a normal image, but with some Photoshop adjustments to reverse the channels.



Open your landscape image in Adobe Photoshop. I'll use this landscape image, which has a nice mix of green, and also contains contrasting color levels in the sky, river, and rocks. Start by repeating the layer using the CMD + J Or Ctrl + D shortcut.



Reflect the duplicate layer by going to Image > Adjustments > Invert, or by using the CMD + I keyboard shortcut.



Change the blending mode of this layer to Color. This step reflects the colors of the image while removing the negative effect.



Color grades don't exactly reflect how they appear in authentic infrared images. To resolve this problem, add the Adjust Channels Mixer layer.



Under Default channel to output red, decrease the red slider value to 0 and increase the blue slider to 100%.



Change the output channel list to blue, then raise the red slider value to 100% and reduce the blue slider value to 0. This will exchange red and blue channels, which return the correct color to the sky and water, but green foliage gives that pink feel with a wonderful infrared effect.



Now, we must correct the colors to represent the infrared effect, but the colors are somewhat dim. Add the gradient adjustment layer or color tone.



Change the drop-down menu to the red only effect, which will enhance the vitality of the pink areas without spoiling the entire image saturation.



increase the saturation value to make the pink areas more vivid, then carefully drag the color bar degree to find the best balance between red and pink.



Change the drop-down menu to purple, and change the scroll bars to correct the color to a slightly purple red. Increase saturation and color correction to give them more red, pink or blue appearance.



The final result is a realistic picture of the effect of infrared color, with vibrant pink leaves, which give the landscape a surrealistic appearance, almost like the space planets. By simply reversing colors and converting existing red and blue channels, we can directly replicate the beauty of authentic infrared images in Photoshop.