Warrior 2 James Paterson

Years ago I spent my honeymoon on stunning Lake Bled in Slovenia, so I was delighted when Digital

Camera sent me this evocative shot. It’s a scene that looks straight out of a fairy tale, so I’ve given it a treatment I’ve always found enchanting: black-and-white infrared.

Of course, true infrared must be captured in-camera using either a dense IR filter or, even better, an IR-converted spare camera. But the characteristic glowing green foliage and fine grain are fairly easy to replicate in Photoshop with a combination of tonal tools and simple filter effects.

Lift the trees

When you’re converting to black and white, it’s important to get the colours right first, as they play a vital role in the conversion. I begin by choosing the Adobe Landscape Profile in Camera Raw – which boosts detail and contrast – then I tweak the white balance and lift Shadows and Saturation. Job done.

Leaves are strongly reflective of infrared light, which is why they glow brightly in true infrared photography. To mimic this, I like to use Camera Raw’s Targeted Adjustment Tool, as it offers intuitive on-image control. I rightclick over the image and choose Luminance, then drag upwards over the trees to lighten the greens and yellows.

Glowing black and white

I’d normally convert to mono in Camera Raw or Lightroom, but here I opt instead to use Photoshop’s excellent Channel Mixer, applied as an Adjustment Layer. I choose the Black And White Infrared preset, then tweak the Red and Blue sliders to suit the image. To make a stronger glow effect, I duplicate the background layer, then go to the Channels panel (Window > Channels) and highlight the Green channel. I use Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to blur it by about 5px. Once done, I go to Edit > Fade Gaussian Blur, set the Blending Mode to Screen, and drop the slider to about 15.

Add a grain layer

I can make use of two separate ‘neutral grey’ layers, one to dodge and burn, the other to add grain. To add a grey layer, I Alt-click the New Layer icon in the Layers panel, choose Overlay and tick the ‘Fill With…’ box.

Water and skies normally come out quite dark on infrared film, so I want to reflect this by selectively darkening the lake.

I use my first grey layer and paint with black over the water to darken it, then paint with white to lighten parts of the trees and add impact to the tower. Next I use my other grey layer to apply a grain effect that’s characteristic of the infrared camera look, with the simple choice of Filter > Noise > Add Noise.