False color IR with Digital Cameras

Almost everybody konws the falso color IR pictures made by "KODAK EKTACHROME Professional Infrared EIR Film". Using a yellow filter, this film maps green light to blue, yellow light ro green and IR to red.

I have accomplished the same behaviour suing 2 digital shots:

  Blue Green Red IR
Shot 1 (without IR-filter)  shown  shown  shown not shown (blocked in the camera by the IR lockout filter) 
Shot 2 (with IR-filter) not shown (locked by the IR filter in fron to the lens) not shown (locked by the IR filter in fron to the lens) not shown (locked by the IR filter in fron to the lens) shown. The IR light leaking through the IR lockout filter in the camera is shown.

Now I combine the 4 color channels:

Shot 1, blue: Not used
Shot 1, green: blue
Shot 1, red: green
Shot 2, IR: Red

  Blue Green Red
Final picture  Green, Shot 1   Red, Shot 1   IR, Shot 2 

The Pictures:

Normal color shot

Camera: D100
50mm f/1.4
Aperture: 10
Exposure time 1/350s

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IR Shot

Filter: Kodak 87C

Camera: D100
50mm f/1.4
Aperture: 8
Exposure time: 2s

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IR shot after WB.

Shows clearly that the color filters in front of the sensor are no longer seletive in the IR range.

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The IR shot as grayscale picture.

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The final false color picture.

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More pictures

© 2004 Benedikt Schenker