I was scrolling the world wide web, as one does, and I came across a very inspiring set of images shot in Congo by Richard Mosse. They are these incredible vibrant images with pink and magenta foliage, surrounding soldiers and rebels and all sorts. I had admired those images before but hadn’t gotten around to reading about them until know.
I found out the vibrant pinks shown in the photoraphs is not the actual colour of foliage we see as humans, nor is it photoshop. It comes from the infrared wavelenghts that is not visible to our mortal eyes, but can be captured on specialised film.
The film in question is called Aerochrome, and it was developed back in the 1940’s by Kodak, together with the US military, but has been since discontinued. It was originally designed for aerial surveillance to spot camouflaged troops and vehicles hiding in forests. Infrared light reflects from the chlorophyll filled foliage, and since camouflage clothing or paint doesn’t contain chlorophyll, they will be revealed more easily when captured on this special film. Genious.
Since I don’t have access to discontinued infrared film but I desperately wanted to try the look, I found a tutorial to replicate it on Photoshop. Not gonna lie, I’m pretty into it.