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Infrared color photography, often referred to as modified color or false color photography, is accomplished using Kodak Ektachrome Infrared Film and a Kodak Wratten No. 12 filter (deep yellow). . These color renditions apply when absorption and reflection are involved. They are not necessarily true when color is produced by some other means.
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False colour |
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Understanding Colour Infrared
To understand why colours appear completely different from what you would expect we need to examine how colour infrared film works.
Colour IR film comes with three colour sensitive layers:
Infrared and blue
Green and blue
Red and blue
You’ll notice that all three layers have a blue content, this is why when you open a box of EIR Kodak recommend you use a Wratten #12 deep yellow filter, this cuts the amount of blue getting through to the layers.
On the right you'll see the progression from the source to the film when processed and how the light affects the various layers.
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| Without any filter you'll end up with a pinkish purple cast to the whole shot, like the example on the right, sometimes though, this can be effective. |  |
As you can see, the colours at the top just aren't the same at the bottom, this is why green leaves which reflect infrared show up red on blue trees and other weird and wonderful combinations.
So we know we need a yellow filter on the front of the lens to get rid of the excessive blue (all three layers of the film like blue), but what other filters can we use? How different are the results from a normal film compared to a colour infrared film??
Examples can be found on the next page
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