Creating a compelling purple infrared false color look is hard. Not purple per se — you can get violet-ish tones using sepia and green filters — but getting a punchy, satisfying purple straight out of camera (SOOC)? That’s a real challenge.
Right now, I’m working on what might become a solid base for this look. My current setup:
– Internal filter: DB850
– External: Triple Bandpass TB430–512–631
– IR reducer: QB10
– Plus a Lee Lime Green filter in front
Is it perfect? Not yet. Two things still bug me: the purple shifts slightly too blue, and the sky tends to turn green. That said, I’m still undecided about the sky — maybe I like it. I’m testing other green filters to see how much they shift the balance.
The key ingredient here is really the unusual Triple Bandpass. It shifts the wavelengths in a uniquely useful way. None of my earlier setups without it came close. For SOOC results without any channel mixing, this setup has the most potential.
By the way, the most creative purple/violet IR looks I’ve seen so far come from French IR photographer Fedia. Take a look here. He uses various techniques — pushing IR reduction to the limit, combining tailored filters, and shifting channels (blue → green) to create a varied, punchy palette with rich purples, greens, and yellows.
Here are a few of my own shots — all JPEG, SOOC:
