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tommyg35
Participating Frequently
December 23, 2021
Question

Infra-Red Photography White balance

  • December 23, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1123 views

I'm interested in doing infra-red photography and have converted my old Nikon D40 by having fitted a IR Filter (720NM). The company that fitted the filter said that because of limitations in the D40 all photos will have a red "tinge" but I can correct this by altering the white balance in PE21

However, after importing a sample picture (copy attached) I see in Camera Raw editor I have two options.

Under basic is a drop-down menu for white balance none of the options make any significant difference. Further down is a slider for whites but again using this makes no difference other than to reduce the red tinge to a slight pink one.

How do I correct this tinge, please?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Medha_Sharma
Adobe Employee
Medha_Sharma
Adobe Employee
January 7, 2022

Hello @tommyg35 

 

Hope Michel's suggestions were helpful. Please let us know if there's anything else we could help you with.

 

Regards,

Medha

T
tommyg35Author
Participating Frequently
January 7, 2022

I have found a kind of solution. As my camera is a Nikon I downloaded the Nikon Capture software. First you import the image into capture, then on the options bar tap on WB (white balance), using the eye dropper click on somewhere in the image that will be white, in normal light. 
This produces quite a good colour picture which you then can move into lightroom or photoshop to add any further enhancements.

MichelBParis
MichelBParis
Legend
December 23, 2021

IR photography is meant to make visible what you can't see. So, the simple ideas of 'colours' and 'white balance' are totally arbitrary. As a creativity effect, IR photography is generally used to create a monochrome image with drastically changed luminosity for various colours. You can simulate this effect without a real filter and sensor adaptation by using curves or gradient maps. The simplest way in PSE is to use the Enhance menu with the 'convert to B&W' option with the Infrared preset. And that also works for you real filtered jpeg.

 

Since the editing is totally arbitrary to your taste, I think that the 'white balance' step is not really useful in ACR. Using the 'custom'option with the color picker can't do miracles. I suggest to use the 'profiles' choices for Black and white conversion; there are about 15 profiles which are able to extract the most of the details and luminosity shades of the image (profile 10, blue filter...). I suppose you would get richer images to start with from your raw images.

 

 

    T
    tommyg35Author
    Participating Frequently
    December 23, 2021
    Thank you. That's very helpful.

    I did shoot in RAW but wasn't sure if the size of the image was too much for the site.

    If I wished to change the colour of an item in the picture would I do a hue/saturation on an adjustment layer?


    Tom
    MichelBParis
    MichelBParis
    Legend
    December 23, 2021
    quote
    Thank you. That's very helpful.I did shoot in RAW but wasn't sure if the size of the image was too much for the site.If I wished to change the colour of an item in the picture would I do a hue/saturation on an adjustment layer?Tom
    By @tommyg35

    Yes, I would recommend the hue/sat adjustment layers.

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