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Color IR

Film · false-color infrared

Color infrared film was made for aerial survey, to pick out living plants from the air. It records infrared light as red, so leaves burn magenta and red while the sky goes deep blue. Color IR shifts your picture the same way.

Before · AfterThe sample picture with no effectColor IR at its default settings

The sample with the Drum Scan preset. Drag to compare, or press Play with it to tune it live. Open as a shared look

What it's like

Shoot a summer field through a yellow filter on false-color slide film and the trees come back hot pink. Healthy plants reflect far more infrared than we can see, and this film shows it. Red things turn yellow, and the whole frame looks like a postcard from another planet. It's slide film, so it's contrasty, saturated and fussy about exposure.

When to reach for it

  • Landscapes, parks and anything leafy. The more green in the frame, the stronger it gets.
  • Album art and music video that needs an unreal palette with a real photographic feel.
  • A strange, moving cine version. Add Gate weave and a little Halation.

How it works

The film has three layers, each seeing different light. The infrared layer prints as red, the red layer as green and the green layer as blue. NANALOG can't see infrared, so it estimates it from your picture. Anything green reads as a plant and glows brightest, skin glows a little, and blue sky stays dark. Then it swaps the colors down the line, the way the film does.

Controls

22 controls in 10 sections, in the order Tune shows them.

Stock

  • Hero knobStrength 0 to 100 · rests at 100

    The hero. How much of the infrared color you get. Grain and fade stay on at any setting.

  • FaderExposure −3.0 EV to +3.0 EV · rests at 0 EV

    Exposure in stops. It's slide film, so almost all of it shows. Over washes out, under goes dense.

Infrared

  • SelectFilter Yellow 12Yellow 15Orange 21

    The filter on the lens. Yellow 12 lets a trace of real blue through, Yellow 15 less, Orange 21 none.

  • KnobFoliage 0 to 100 · rests at 75

    How hard green plants glow in infrared. High turns leaves bright red and magenta.

Lab

  • FaderPush / pull Pull 1.0 to Push +3.0 · rests at Box speed

    Push develops longer for more contrast, crushed blacks and bigger grain. Pull goes softer and lifted, with finer grain.

  • SelectLab StandardCrispSoftPrintFlat

    Who processed it. Crisp is punchy with cool shadows. Soft is gentle. Print has deep blacks. Flat is low contrast, for grading later.

Format

  • SelectFormat Half frame35mm120Cine 35

    The size of the frame, which sets the grain. Half frame is coarsest, 120 is finest.

  • KnobGate weave 0 to 100 · rests at 0

    The frame drifts in the gate, like a movie camera. It steps at 24 frames a second and loops clean.

Color

  • FaderWarmth -100 to +100 · rests at 0

    Up is warmer, down is cooler.

  • KnobFade 0 to 100 · rests at 3

    Lifts the blacks to a cool gray and dims the whites, like an old slide.

Grain

  • KnobGrain 0 to 100 · rests at 35

    How much grain. It sits in the midtones and shadows and thins out in the highlights.

  • KnobGrain size 0 to 100 · rests at 35

    How big the grain is.

Halation

  • KnobHalation 0 to 100 · rests at 0

    A red glow around bright lights, the way cine film glows. Off by default here.

  • KnobSpread 0 to 100 · rests at 40

    How far the glow reaches.

  • KnobThreshold 0 to 100 · rests at 60

    How bright a light has to be to glow. Higher keeps it to the hottest lights.

Light

  • SelectLight source MatchedTungstenFluorescentSodiumMixed

    The light the scene was shot under, as the film sees it. Tungsten goes orange, Fluorescent goes green, Sodium drains the color to a deep orange, Mixed puts green in the shadows and warmth in the highlights.

Darkroom

  • KnobBleach bypass 0 to 100 · rests at 0

    Skips the bleach and leaves the silver in. Color drains, contrast climbs.

  • KnobExpired 0 to 100 · rests at 0

    Old stock. The blacks fog, the contrast flattens and the color drifts, with fresh noise on every frame.

  • SelectDrift MagentaCyanGreen

    Which way the expired stock drifts. Magenta, Cyan or Green.

Scan

  • SelectScanner LabFlatbedDrum

    How the film was scanned. Lab is straight. Flatbed is soft, a little lifted and cool. Drum is crisp.

  • KnobScan sharpen 0 to 100 · rests at 0

    Scanner sharpening. A little adds bite, a lot leaves bright edges on every line.

  • KnobDust 0 to 100 · rests at 0

    White specks on the scan. Past halfway a hair lands too.

Presets

7 presets. Each one opens in the studio as a shared look. Add it on top of your picture, or save it to My looks.

01Bleach BypassSilver left in: color drops, contrast climbs.02Found RollExpired years ago: fogged blacks, magenta drift, dust.03Office LightShot under fluorescent tubes: the green cast film sees.04Sodium StreetOrange street lamps: color nearly gone, glow around the lights.05Flatbed ScanHome scanner: soft, a little lifted, a speck or two.06Drum ScanCrisp drum scan with scanner sharpening.07Expired CyanOld stock drifting cyan.