Infrared Effect: The Aerochrome Look From a Normal Photo
False colour that turns foliage red and skies deep, plus a black and white infrared mode and the halation bleed that real infrared film was famous for. Simulated from visible light, and this page says so plainly.
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Look
How strongly green things are treated as infrared-bright. Higher pushes leaves and grass further.
Infrared film had no anti-halation backing, so bright areas bled into their surroundings. This is that bleed.
This simulates the look of infrared film from an ordinary colour photo. It is not real infrared, because your camera filtered that light out before the picture was taken.
Presets
Your photos are never uploaded. The channel mapping and the export both run inside this browser tab.
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Everything this tool does
Built on the real relationship
Green-dominant pixels are lifted and blue-dominant ones pushed down, because that is how foliage and sky differ in infrared. On a test pair, a leaf and a sky of similar visible brightness came out 194 and 122, having been 28 levels the other way under ordinary luminance.
Three distinct looks
False colour for the Aerochrome red foliage, black and white for glowing leaves against a dark sky, and a pure channel rotation for something surreal.
Halation, not just glow
Infrared film had no anti-halation backing, so bright areas bled into their surroundings. Only bright pixels contribute, and the bleed is screen blended so it can only brighten.
One mode is exactly reversible
Channel swap is a pure rotation, so applying it three times returns the original byte for byte, which we verify. The other two modes are destructive, and the page says so.
Foliage response control
How aggressively green things are treated as infrared-bright, from a restrained shift to a fully graphic transformation.
Honest about what it is
Your camera filtered infrared out before the photo existed, so this is a simulation. That is stated on the page rather than implied away.
Drag to compare
Before and after share one frame with a slider between them.
Six purpose-built presets
Aerochrome, subtle false colour, black and white IR, dreamy halation, channel swap and high contrast.
Batch with one ZIP
Apply one look across a set and take everything as a single archive built in your browser.
Nothing is uploaded
No server, no queue, nothing to delete afterwards. Close the tab and every trace of the image goes with it.
What each mode does
Three different looks, all derived from the same idea: vegetation reflects green strongly in visible light and near infrared even more strongly, so the green channel is the best proxy an ordinary photograph can offer.
| Mode | What happens | Try | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| False colour | foliage red, sky deep blue | foliage 60-80 | The classic Aerochrome look |
| Black and white IR | bright leaves, dark sky | foliage 70-90 | Fine art landscapes |
| Channel swap | a pure colour rotation | any | Surreal, exactly reversible |
| Foliage 0-30 | subtle, closer to the original | contrast 10-25 | Restrained versions |
| Foliage 70-100 | vegetation strongly pushed | contrast 25-40 | Obvious, graphic |
| Halation 20-40 | gentle bleed from highlights | any mode | Believable film feel |
| Halation 70-100 | heavy dreamy bleed | contrast 30+ | Ethereal, romantic |
3
infrared looks
0
files uploaded
Exact
reversible swap mode
Screen
blend halation
ZIP
batch download
Free
no account needed
FlipMyFormat vs other infrared filters
| Capability | FlipMyFormat | Typical free tool |
|---|---|---|
| Files stay in your browser | ||
| Honest about being a simulation | ||
| False colour and black and white modes | ||
| Halation bleed with screen blending | ||
| Exactly reversible channel swap mode | ||
| Batch ZIP download without paying | ||
| No watermark on the output |
How to get a convincing infrared look
Infrared photography looks strange for one specific reason: chlorophyll reflects near infrared light extremely strongly, far more strongly than it reflects any visible colour, while the sky reflects almost none. On film sensitive to that light, foliage comes out brilliantly bright and the sky comes out nearly black, and that single inversion is what makes an infrared landscape so unsettling. Kodak Aerochrome added a second twist by mapping that infrared response onto the red channel and shifting the visible colours down one place, which is why its trees are pink and red rather than white. Everything on this page is built around reproducing that relationship, and the practical consequence is that the effect needs vegetation to work on. A photograph of a building, a room or a portrait has almost nothing that would have been infrared-bright, so the result will be a colour shift rather than the transformation people are looking for. Give it trees against a sky and it comes alive. Beyond subject, the two controls that matter are the foliage response, which decides how aggressively green things are treated as infrared-bright, and the halation, which is not decoration. Infrared film had no anti-halation backing layer, so light passed through the emulsion, bounced off the film base and came back to expose the surrounding area, giving every bright region a soft bleed. Adding a little of that is the difference between something that looks like a channel swap and something that looks like film.
- 1
Add a photo with vegetation
Drag it in, click to browse, or paste with Ctrl+V. Trees, grass and gardens under a blue sky are what the look was built around.
- 2
Pick a look and push the foliage
False colour turns leaves red, black and white makes them glow. The foliage slider decides how far green things are pushed.
- 3
Add halation and export
A little bleed from the highlights is what makes it read as film rather than as a channel swap. Save individually or as one ZIP.
What this can and cannot reproduce
A proxy, not a measurement
Your camera has a filter in front of its sensor specifically to block near infrared, because infrared light would otherwise degrade normal colour accuracy. That light was removed before the photograph existed, so no software can recover it, and any tool claiming to give you real infrared from an ordinary photo is describing something impossible. What can be done is a good approximation, because the colour relationships in a visible photograph carry a lot of information about infrared reflectance for the two subjects that matter most. Vegetation is strongly green-dominant and reflects infrared far more strongly still, so green-dominant pixels are lifted above their visible brightness. Clear sky is blue-dominant and reflects almost no infrared, so blue-dominant pixels are pushed down. That pair of adjustments reproduces the foliage and sky inversion which is where almost all of the visual impact lives: on a test pair, a green leaf and a blue sky of similar visible brightness came out 194 and 122 under the infrared response, having been 28 levels the other way round under ordinary luminance. It will not reproduce the surprises that make real infrared interesting, such as fabrics and paints that look ordinary to the eye but behave unexpectedly in infrared, because nothing in a visible-light photograph records that behaviour.
One mode that is exactly reversible
The channel swap mode is included partly because it produces a striking surreal look and partly because it is a useful reference point. It rotates the three channels, moving green into red, blue into green and red into blue, without any weighting or curve. That means it is exactly invertible: apply it three times and you get back precisely the picture you started with, byte for byte, which we verify on a test image. The other two modes are not reversible, because they combine channels with weights and then apply contrast and halation, and information is genuinely lost in the process. Knowing which of the three is destructive is worth having, and it is the kind of thing a tool should tell you rather than leave you to find out.
What people use it for
Surreal landscapes
Trees against a blue sky is the subject the look exists for, and the transformation is dramatic.
Album and book covers
False colour foliage is instantly striking and carries a strong retro association with 1960s Aerochrome.
Fine art black and white
The monochrome mode gives the glowing foliage and near black skies of classic infrared landscape photography.
Wedding and portrait sessions outdoors
A restrained false colour treatment on a garden setting is unusual without being gimmicky.
Music and festival artwork
The look has a psychedelic association that suits event and music design.
Editorial and travel photography
One infrared frame in a set of normal photographs breaks up a spread effectively.
Social media
Highly distinctive at thumbnail size, which is most of what a feed image needs.
Print and poster work
The strong colour separation reproduces well in print, especially in the high contrast preset.
Six tips worth knowing
The effect needs vegetation. A photo of a building or an interior has nothing that would have been infrared-bright, so you will get a colour shift rather than a transformation.
Trees against a blue sky is the ideal subject, because the sky darkens as the foliage brightens and the contrast between them is the whole point.
Add some halation. It is the difference between something that looks like a channel swap and something that looks like film.
Try the black and white mode on landscapes. It is closer to what most classic infrared photography actually looked like.
Channel swap is the only reversible mode. Apply it three times and you are back where you started.
Export PNG. False colour output has large areas of saturated red and magenta, which is exactly what JPEG bands.
Troubleshooting
My photo barely changed
There is probably no vegetation in it. The effect works by exploiting how differently foliage and sky reflect infrared, and a photo with neither has nothing to exploit.
The colours look muddy rather than red
Raise the foliage response and add contrast. Low foliage settings stay close to the original, which on a green scene reads as murky.
Is this real infrared?
No, and the page says so. Your camera has a filter that removes infrared before the photo is taken, so no software can recover it. This reproduces the look using the visible green channel.
The sky did not go dark
Cloudy and white skies have nothing to darken. The dramatic dark sky of real infrared comes from clear blue sky reflecting very little infrared.
Frequently asked questions
Is this real infrared photography?
No. Your camera has a filter in front of the sensor that blocks near infrared, so that light was removed before the photograph existed and no software can recover it. This reproduces the look using the visible channels.
Why does infrared make leaves bright?
Chlorophyll reflects near infrared extremely strongly, far more than it reflects any visible colour. On infrared-sensitive film, foliage comes out brilliantly bright while the sky, which reflects almost none, comes out nearly black.
Why are the trees red rather than white?
That is the Aerochrome look. Kodak's false colour infrared film mapped the infrared response onto the red channel and shifted the visible colours down one place, which is why its foliage is pink and red.
How does the simulation work?
Green-dominant pixels are lifted above their visible brightness and blue-dominant ones are pushed down, because vegetation reflects infrared very strongly and clear sky reflects almost none. On a test pair, a leaf and a sky of similar visible brightness came out 194 and 122, having been 28 levels the other way round under ordinary luminance.
What will it not reproduce?
The surprises. Real infrared reveals fabrics, paints and materials that look ordinary to the eye but behave unexpectedly in infrared, and nothing in a visible-light photograph records that.
Which mode should I use?
False colour for the classic Aerochrome look, black and white for something closer to most classic infrared landscape photography, and channel swap when you want something surreal and reversible.
What is halation?
Infrared film had no anti-halation backing layer, so light passed through the emulsion, reflected off the film base and re-exposed the surrounding area. Bright regions therefore bled outward, and that bleed is a signature of the medium.
Which mode is reversible?
Only channel swap, which is a pure rotation. Apply it three times and you get the original back byte for byte. False colour and black and white combine channels with weights, so information is genuinely lost.
My photo barely changed
It probably has no vegetation. The effect works by exploiting the very different infrared reflectance of foliage and sky, so a building or an interior gives it nothing to work with.
Why did my sky stay bright?
The dramatic dark sky of infrared comes from clear blue sky reflecting very little infrared. An overcast white sky has nothing to darken.
What does the foliage response slider do?
It sets how heavily the green channel is weighted in the infrared proxy. Higher values push vegetation further toward infrared-bright, which makes the effect more graphic and less natural.
Can I use this on portraits?
You can, and outdoors with greenery around it works well. Skin in real infrared goes smooth and pale, which this only partly reproduces since it is derived from visible light.
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. The channel mapping and the export both run in your browser using the canvas API. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Which format should I export?
PNG. False colour output contains large areas of saturated red and magenta, which is exactly the kind of content JPEG bands.
Is transparency preserved?
Yes for PNG and WebP output. The alpha channel is untouched. JPG has no alpha, so transparent areas are filled with the background colour first.
Can I process a batch?
Yes. Add as many photos as you like and the same mode and settings are applied to each.
How do I take real infrared photos?
You need either a camera with its internal infrared blocking filter removed, or an infrared pass filter on the lens with very long exposures. Both are real options, and neither is something software can substitute for.
Does it add a watermark or need an account?
No to both. No sign-up, no email wall, no daily limit and no watermark on the output.