Adobe Photoshop Tutorial: Infrared Photo Effect

Step 5: Add A Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer

We need to bring up a Channel Mixer adjustment layer at this point, and we can do that by clicking on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and selecting Channel Mixer from the list:

This brings up the Channel Mixer dialog box:

I've circled in red the options we need to change. In the "Source Channels" section, set Red to -50%, Green to 200%, and Blue to the same as red, -50%. The general rule with these values in the Channel Mixer is that you want to keep the total value of all three channels at 100%, otherwise you'll either be losing contrast in the image or losing detail in the highlights, which is why, in order to set the Green value to 200%, we lowered both the Red and Blue values to -50%, giving us our 100%. Again, not something you need to know. I just like to toss these things out there.

Finally, click the Monochrome checkbox in the bottom left corner of the dialog box to keep the image in grayscale mode. Click OK when you're done.

Here's my image with the Channel Mixer adjustment layer applied:

Step 6: Lower The Opacity Of The "Infrared" Layer

At this point, the infrared effect is too intense. Let's reduce it by lowering the opacity of the "infrared" layer. First, click on the "infrared" layer in the Layers palette to select it, then go up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette, hover your mouse directly over the word "Opacity" to turn your mouse cursor into the "scrubby slider" icon, then click and drag to the left to lower the opacity value:

You'll probably have to reduce the opacity quite a bit. I've reduced mine to 35% in the screenshot above.

Here's my result:

The effect is pretty much complete at this point, but it's too clean. Infrared photos typically have a lot of grain in them, so to finish off the effect, we're going to add some noise.