Get the look of Aerochrome film with your infrared camera
I’ve been photographing the South Dakota Badlands and surrounding areas since 2005. This year, I took a different approach. Instead of photographing traditional sunrise/sunset landscapes, I instead focused entirely on infrared photography. This image is one of many that I captured during my South Dakota Infrared Photo Safari.
Late last year, I had my Nikon Z6 converted to full-spectrum infrared by Kolari Vision. This unique conversion lets both visible and infrared wavelengths reach the camera’s sensor. By itself, this conversion wouldn’t produce good images, but with filters, you can have any kind of infrared camera you want.
I have a set of four Kolari Vision clip-in filters for my full-spectrum Nikon Z6 camera:
- 720nm (traditional IR)
- 590nm (color IR)
- IR Chrome Lite (similar to Kodak Aerochrome film)
- Hot Mirror Pro 2 (for visible light shooting)
The Kolari Vision IR Chrome Lite filter works only with full-spectrum cameras, and produces results similar to Kodak Aerochrome film. Skies are blue/turquoise, and IR-reflecting substances like foliage are rendered orange or red. One nice thing about this filter is that you can process your images directly in Adobe Lightroom without having to use a custom camera profile; the standard color profiles included with Lightroom work just fine, provided you make the necessary white balance adjustments.
