Manipulating colour for IR images

Taking a break from posterisation, I decided to try out some ideas with the colour in Infra-red photography. As with a lot of my work it is experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t. First I will show my starting images: Full colour, infra-red monochrome and ‘full spectrum (includes infra-red)’ colour. They are all the same view centred on a tree across a green field:-

Normal full colour with bare trees and a green crop growing
Monochrome infra-red using a 760nm filter
Full spectrum colour including infra-red

My first attempts were blending the monochrome IR with the full colour infra-red deleting the blues, moving green to blue and red to green:

Version 1, very poor
Version 2, also poor

My next attempt was using the normal colour image as a starting point with the monochrome infra-red becoming the new red channel:

This version is better but still not good.

The final version shown does, I think, hold promise. I shall think more about how to do this and do more experimenting…

Author: Paul L.G. Morris

I am an amateur photographer whose photography is mostly of gardens, nature and the rural environment. My specialities are close-ups, panoramic views, or a combination of both that I call 'Nearscapes'. I work mostly for my own interest having closed my business PM Studios Ltd.