# 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.

## Controls

### Stock

- **Strength** (hero knob, 0 to 100, rests at 100). The hero. How much of the infrared color you get. Grain and fade stay on at any setting.
- **Exposure** (Fader, −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

- **Filter** (Select: Yellow 12 / Yellow 15 / Orange 21). The filter on the lens. **Yellow 12** lets a trace of real blue through, **Yellow 15** less, **Orange 21** none.
- **Foliage** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 75). How hard green plants glow in infrared. High turns leaves bright red and magenta.

### Lab

- **Push / pull** (Fader, 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.
- **Lab** (Select: Standard / Crisp / Soft / Print / Flat). Who processed it. **Crisp** is punchy with cool shadows. **Soft** is gentle. **Print** has deep blacks. **Flat** is low contrast, for grading later.

### Format

- **Format** (Select: Half frame / 35mm / 120 / Cine 35). The size of the frame, which sets the grain. Half frame is coarsest, 120 is finest.
- **Gate weave** (Knob, 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

- **Warmth** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). Up is warmer, down is cooler.
- **Fade** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 3). Lifts the blacks to a cool gray and dims the whites, like an old slide.

### Grain

- **Grain** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 35). How much grain. It sits in the midtones and shadows and thins out in the highlights.
- **Grain size** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 35). How big the grain is.

### Halation

- **Halation** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). A red glow around bright lights, the way cine film glows. Off by default here.
- **Spread** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 40). How far the glow reaches.
- **Threshold** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 60). How bright a light has to be to glow. Higher keeps it to the hottest lights.

### Light

- **Light source** (Select: Matched / Tungsten / Fluorescent / Sodium / Mixed). 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

- **Bleach bypass** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Skips the bleach and leaves the silver in. Color drains, contrast climbs.
- **Expired** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Old stock. The blacks fog, the contrast flattens and the color drifts, with fresh noise on every frame.
- **Drift** (Select: Magenta / Cyan / Green). Which way the expired stock drifts. Magenta, Cyan or Green.

### Scan

- **Scanner** (Select: Lab / Flatbed / Drum). How the film was scanned. **Lab** is straight. **Flatbed** is soft, a little lifted and cool. **Drum** is crisp.
- **Scan sharpen** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Scanner sharpening. A little adds bite, a lot leaves bright edges on every line.
- **Dust** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). White specks on the scan. Past halfway a hair lands too.

## Presets

- **Bleach Bypass**: Silver left in: color drops, contrast climbs.
- **Found Roll**: Expired years ago: fogged blacks, magenta drift, dust.
- **Office Light**: Shot under fluorescent tubes: the green cast film sees.
- **Sodium Street**: Orange street lamps: color nearly gone, glow around the lights.
- **Flatbed Scan**: Home scanner: soft, a little lifted, a speck or two.
- **Drum Scan**: Crisp drum scan with scanner sharpening.
- **Expired Cyan**: Old stock drifting cyan.