Kodak Aerochrome is one of the most iconic and distinctive film stocks ever made. Originally developed for aerial reconnaissance and vegetation mapping, its extraordinary false-colour rendering — vivid magenta and red foliage, deep cyan skies, and a dreamlike, psychedelic atmosphere — made it a cult favourite among fine art photographers before its discontinuation. With a full spectrum camera and the right post-processing technique, you can recreate this legendary look digitally. Here's how. For a broader guide to infrared post-processing, read: How to Post-Process Infrared Photos — A Beginner's Guide.
What You Need Before You Start
To achieve a convincing Aerochrome look, you need the right starting material:
- A full spectrum camera — essential, as a standard camera cannot capture the infrared light that makes the Aerochrome effect possible
- A 550nm or 590nm infrared filter — these filters allow a blend of visible and near-infrared light to reach the sensor, giving you the colour information needed for the effect. A 590nm filter is the most commonly recommended starting point for Aerochrome simulation. See our Essential Filters guide for more on filter choices.
- RAW files — always shoot in RAW for maximum flexibility in post-processing
- Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop — both are used in this workflow
Shoot in bright daylight with plenty of green foliage in the scene — trees, grass, hedgerows. The Aerochrome effect is most dramatic and convincing in lush, green landscapes. Overcast days can work but bright sun produces the most vivid results.
Step 1: White Balance Correction in Lightroom
Open your RAW file in Lightroom. The image will have a strong red or orange cast from the infrared filter. Your first task is to neutralise this with a custom white balance.
Drag the Temperature slider to the left (cooler) — typically somewhere between 2,200K and 3,200K for a 590nm filter, though the exact value will vary. Adjust the Tint slider as needed to remove any green or magenta bias. Aim for an image that looks roughly neutral — not perfectly colour-accurate, but without a dominant colour cast in one direction.
A useful shortcut: if you set a custom white balance in-camera by pointing at green grass before shooting, your starting point in Lightroom will already be much closer to neutral. For a full guide to in-camera white balance for infrared, read: White Balance and Exposure Settings for Infrared Photography.
Step 2: Channel Swap in Photoshop
The channel swap is the heart of the Aerochrome workflow. It's what transforms the infrared image into the characteristic false-colour palette. This step needs to be done in Photoshop.
Export your white-balance-corrected image from Lightroom to Photoshop (or open the RAW file directly in Camera Raw, then open in Photoshop).
In Photoshop:
- Go to Image → Adjustments → Channel Mixer
- Select the Red output channel. Set Red to 0% and Blue to 100%. Leave Green at 0%.
- Select the Blue output channel. Set Blue to 0% and Red to 100%. Leave Green at 0%.
- Leave the Green output channel unchanged (Green 100%).
- Click OK.
After the channel swap, foliage that was red or orange will shift towards blue or cyan, and the sky will shift towards red or gold. The image will look unusual at this stage — that's expected. The next steps refine it into the Aerochrome palette.
Step 3: Hue and Saturation Adjustments
This is where you dial in the classic Aerochrome colours. The goal is to push foliage towards vivid magenta and red, and skies towards deep cyan or blue. Use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in Photoshop for non-destructive editing.
Work through the individual colour ranges:
- Reds — Shift the hue towards magenta (move the Hue slider left, typically −10 to −30). Boost saturation to make the foliage vivid and punchy.
- Yellows — Shift towards red or orange. Boost saturation.
- Greens — Shift towards yellow or cyan depending on your preference. Reduce saturation slightly if greens look unnatural.
- Cyans — These will often appear in the sky. Shift towards blue and boost saturation for a deeper, richer sky.
- Blues — Deepen and saturate for a more dramatic sky.
There's no single "correct" set of values — Aerochrome itself varied depending on exposure, development, and the specific scene. Use these adjustments as a starting point and trust your eye.
Step 4: Tone Curve Adjustments
Aerochrome film had a distinctive tonal quality — slightly elevated shadows (a lifted black point), compressed highlights, and a warm, slightly faded quality in the midtones. Recreate this with a Curves adjustment layer:
- Lift the bottom-left point of the curve slightly upward to raise the black point and add a faded, film-like quality to the shadows
- Add a gentle S-curve for contrast — but keep it subtle; Aerochrome wasn't a high-contrast film
- In the individual colour channels, add a slight warm curve to the Red channel in the highlights, and a slight cool curve to the Blue channel in the shadows, to add depth and warmth
Step 5: Adding Film Grain
Aerochrome was a film stock, and film grain is an important part of its aesthetic. In Photoshop, go to Filter → Noise → Add Noise and add a small amount of Gaussian noise (typically 2–5%) to give the image a subtle film texture. Alternatively, use Lightroom's Grain slider in the Effects panel — a Size of around 25–35 and Roughness of 50–60 produces a convincing film grain.
Step 6: Final Colour Grading
The final step is a subtle colour grade to unify the image and add the warm, slightly otherworldly quality that makes Aerochrome so distinctive. In Lightroom's Colour Grading panel (or Photoshop's Color Balance):
- Add a slight warm (orange-yellow) tone to the highlights
- Add a slight cool (blue-cyan) tone to the shadows
- Keep the midtones relatively neutral or with a very slight warm bias
Saving a Preset
Once you've developed a workflow that produces results you're happy with, save it as a Lightroom preset and a Photoshop action so you can apply it consistently to future images.
Tips for the Best Results
- Shoot in bright sun — the effect is most vivid and convincing in strong directional sunlight with deep shadows
- Include plenty of foliage — the magenta-red foliage is the defining element of the Aerochrome look; scenes without vegetation will be less convincing
- Don't over-saturate — Aerochrome was vivid but not garish; restraint in saturation produces more authentic results
- Experiment with different filters — a 550nm filter will give you more colour information to work with; a 590nm filter produces a stronger infrared effect that's closer to the original film's rendering
- Study original Aerochrome images — familiarise yourself with the genuine article so you know what you're aiming for. The work of Richard Mosse, who used Aerochrome extensively in his documentary photography, is an excellent reference.
The Aerochrome look is one of the most rewarding and distinctive results achievable with a full spectrum camera. It takes practice to get right, but the results — landscapes transformed into vivid, dreamlike scenes of magenta and cyan — are unlike anything else in photography.
Explore our range of full spectrum converted cameras and infrared filters to start your Aerochrome journey.