Using LUT for False Colour IR photos

[Timber]

I've been using the good ol' Channel Swap for IR photos but then I found I had to play a LOT with HSL after to get the right colours and none of the photo editing softwares I used is good enough for easy colour grading so I've decided to give a try and create Colour Look Up Table (LUT) with DaVinci Resolve and then instead of doing the channel swap I just use LUTs and then only need to fine tune with HSL.

 

I can proudly say the results were better than what I expected :) I tried various photos (from past and few test photos shot today) and the LUT almost always works for me. I am really happy :) So here are the LUT files I've created, I hope you guys will find it useful too.

 

Samples (left side with LUT, right side without LUT):

550nm Orange Filter - Blue Sky, Crimson Foliage, Blue skin tones

 

600nm Red Filter - Blue Sky, Golden Foliage

 

720nm IR Filter - Blue Sky, White Foliage

 

Poor man's IR Chrome (Hoya 80A + Lee #729) - Blue Sky, Crimson Foliage, Red skin tones

 

And finally the LUT Pack itself:

IR_LUT_PACK.zip

 

If you could post a few samples of how does these LUTs working for you that would help me a lot to see if the results are more or less constant or I just got lucky. :)

I also don't have the IR-Chrome filter from Kolari, or have KG3 to create the perfect IR-Chrome filter (I think Steve / Cadmium calls it Hrommagicus) so I'm really curious how these LUTs working with those filters ;)

 

ps.: and the +1 advantage? You can use it on VIDEO too :) YAY!

ps2.: If you do a RGB->BRG swap with 550nm files then use the IR-Chrome LUT then you will get nice pink foliage :)

[Mark Jones]

THANK YOU!

[Timber]

THANK YOU!

Let me know how it worked for you. I only tried with Sony RAW-s and a few SOOC images others posted here... so far worked all the time :)

[Andy Perrin]

Timber, how do you use the LUT with a Sony camera and RAW? I don't even see a menu option for it.

[Timber]

Timber, how do you use the LUT with a Sony camera and RAW? I don't even see a menu option for it.

Depends on the app you use to Post Process... I use Affinity Photo and Luminar, both can use LUTs. Adobe PS and I think LR can do LUTs too, but not sure as I refuse to use Adobe products :)

[Andy Perrin]

Oh! I thought they were in-camera LUTs.

[Timber]

Oh! I thought they were in-camera LUTs.

Now, that would be freaking awesome :D But I don't think any camera on the market has this feature :)

[Timber]

Now, that would be freaking awesome :D But I don't think any camera on the market has this feature :)

Other than Panasonic :) I am keep amazed how much feature Panasonic is adding to their cameras (they are the only one offering Shutter Angle!)

[Andy Perrin]

Hm. My A7S kind of does? It has seven preset “picture profiles” which are basically LUTs by a different name. I don’t know if custom ones can be added but there might be a way. That’s what I figured you were doing.

[Timber]

Hm. My A7S kind of does? It has seven preset “picture profiles” which are basically LUTs by a different name. I don’t know if custom ones can be added but there might be a way. That’s what I figured you were doing.

They are a bit more than just LUTs, and I am quite sure they are hardwired in the firmware... but I will look into it :)

[Shane]

This sounds similar to using dcptool for the older versions of Photoshop up to CS6 (which may be of use to some of us old diehards). Using dcptool to build a custom camera profile, the colour matrices can be reversed so that it is not necessary to do the channel swap manually. One advantage is that using this custom profile, a channel swap can be performed (automatically) in LR without ever going to Photoshop (if so desired). The later versions of Photoshop and LR can utilize custom LUTs directly.

[eye4invisible]

You just need a LUT for UV now :)

[dabateman]

Andy if you have Affinity photo it looks like these are realatively easy to make. I have had that software for a year now. But still haven't learned it well.

I need to play with these that Timber made. Still haven't gotten to it yet.

My PC has been buggy lately.