Lightroom: Processing an Infrared Raw

This tutorial starts in Lightroom, where I’ll just show you how easy it is to take the IR raw and convert it to monochrome but its real purpose is in creating a false colour image from the same file and for that I work in both Adobe Camera Raw and then Photoshop CC, writes Andrew James. It’s a bit scary but I’ve just counted back and discovered that I first had a camera converted to shoot Infrared images 10 years ago! It wasn’t as popular back then as it is now but in the following decade many photographers have chosen to take a camera they are not going to use because of an upgrade and instead of selling it, have had it converted so that it shoots IR. Once converted there is no going back so it’s something you should consider carefully. The advantages are simple though, you can use your same lenses, with normal exposures and take images that can then be processed to create the classic monochrome IR look – strong contrasts and very white foliage that almost looks like frost – or funky, slightly surreal colour IR image.