In my previous article, I described how to shoot infrared photos. This guide will walk you through processing infrared photos using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CC.
These instructions and screenshots were compiled on a MacOS X Yosemite system, though should work equally well for other platforms.
Here is the processed final image of the infrared shot I shared in the last article:
1. Creating an Infrared Camera Profile
To start processing infrared photos, firstly you need to create a new camera profile. This will allow you to cool down the image more than usual and set the correct white balance. To do this, you will need to save your RAW file in the DNG (Digital Negative) format. Then edit the DNG file in the DNG Profile Editor. Here is a step-by-step guide:
1. Download and install Adobe DNG Profile Editor. The Mac version is available here and the Windows version here.
2. Open the RAW image in Adobe Camera Raw and click “Save Image…” in the bottom left corner
3. In the “Save Options” dialog box, choose the destination folder and select “DNG” as the file extension. Then click “Save”:
4. Open the DNG Profile Editor. Then go to “File” -> “Open DNG Image” and select the DNG file you just saved:
5. Once the image is loaded, click on the “Color Matrices” tab:
6. Under “White Balance Calibration”, bring down the “Temperature” and “Tint” values. This will cool down the image and it will start to look more neutral and less red. In my case, I set both values to the minimum (-100):
7. Go to “File” -> “Export Canon EOS 5D Mark III profile” (this name will be different, depending on the make and model of your camera):
8. Use a descriptive name for the profile (I used Canon EOS 5D Mark III Infrared), then click “Save”:
9. A new camera profile has now been saved. You can now quit the DNG Profile Editor and delete the DNG file created earlier.
Note: These above steps are only required for the first time. The profile will now be saved and can be used by other softwares, such as Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom.
Next, we will process a RAW infrared photo in Adobe Camera Raw.
