Make an Infrared Filter Action in Photoshop?
Photo Tip Friday October 18
Stay tuned for more info about our new photography and Photoshop workshops in January.
This month we encourage you to sharpen your Photoshop skills by creating new Actions. If you find something interesting to share, we’d like to hear about it. Send a copy of the Action to us and we’ll publish it in our newsletter and blog with your name, so everyone can enjoy the speed and ease of use of Actions.
Let’s get to the Infrared Action!
I miss the infrared look in some of my images. How can I make a Pseudo Infrared Action in Photoshop?
For the best results, choose a picture photographed in nice weather, with a uniformly blue sky, clouds, and green foliage. The effect will be strongest in this type of photo.
1- Open an image in Photoshop (you need Photoshop CS or newer).
2- Go to Action tab and select Create new action.
3-In the new action window, choose a name for your new action. For this example I called it Infrared filter.
4- Click on the Record button and the actions you select will be recorded.
5- On the Layers palette, click Adjustment Layer (a black-and-white circle) to choose Selective Color mode.
At the bottom of the Selective Color Options window, set Method to Absolute, and change the color channels to the following values:
Reds channel: Cyan: -100, Magenta: -100, Yellow: 0
Yellows channel: Cyan: 0, Magenta: -100, Yellow: 0
Greens channel: Cyan: 0, Magenta: -100, Yellow: 0
Cyans channel: Cyan: -100, Magenta: +100, Yellow: -100
Blues channel: Cyan: -100, Magenta: +100, Yellow: -100
You don’t need to change the values for any other channels. At this point you have a nice Cross processing effects!
6- Make a new Adjustment Layer, this time selecting Channel Mixer. In the Channel Mixer window select Monochrome at the bottom, and set the color channels to the following values:
Red –50, Green +160, Blue –50.
7- Select the selective color layer and adjust the opacity for final tone ratio. In this example I set it at 80%.
8-After completing these steps, merge the layers by clicking Layer/Flatten Image. If you like infrared images with a less digital feel, you can add a “glowing grains” effect with the Diffuse Glow filter. Filter/Distort/Diffuse Glow.
9-Go to Action tab again and click on stop button.
And that’s all there is to creating this unique effect. To do more of the same type, just open an image, select the Infrared filter action and click the play button. Your infrared image will be ready in no time!
Caution: Because the color channels of digital cameras contain only partial information relative to the whole image, the above mixing and shifting of the channels may lead to a severe loss of detail and sharpness, as well increasing the appearance of color noise. We suggest to work on a copy of the image.
Do you want to learn more? Visit our Registration page and Sign up for our upcoming Photoshop seminar in January!
Ted and Omnilargess Team
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