You want an Aerochrome filter? Forget IR Chrome, forget all the well-known and overpriced filters and buy a Hoya Green X1 instead and a dark yellow or light orange filter, ideally Orange 16 from Tiffen. They create the look I most associate with Aerochrome. And believe me, I’ve tried just about everything.
I was out in the west of Thun today with a converted Nikon D700. Actually I wanted to go to Kiental again, one of my recent discoveries. A visit a few days ago was marred by stubbornly piled-up clouds on the nearby mountain flanks.
But today, my glance towards the Alps told me that the situation would be the same. So I photographed nearby to see how the Nikon D700 with the Aerochrome filter would perform in the field. I went to Gurzelen and snapped photos of the rolling hills and small ponds – remnants from the Ice Age.
I think the result is captivating. This deep, spectacular blue of the sky, the strong cloud contrasts, the color spectrum in the vegetation from violet (in the shade) to pink, orange and deep red as well as the soft cyan color cast of the photos are exactly the elements that make a perfect Aerochrome filter for me.
3 Comments
Hey, great results! Did you have to do any chanel swapping? I’ve recently converted a point and shoot and found chanel swapping to have bad results on hard edges from the jpgs the camera produces. I bought an IR Chrome filter which is better but still requires some color manipulation in post. It would be nice to get closer to the correct color straight out of camera. Thanks!
Yes, unfortunately this only works with the Triple Bandpass filter, as far as I can see. Orange-green is great, but works so well only with certain Nikons and certain lenses – and you need Photoshop for some adjustments (see various posts). Check out the info on the Triple Bandpass in the latest post – that doesn’t work in-camera either, but definitely works much better than Orange-Green. So it’s very suitable for video. Cheers!
Thanks so much! Will try those out when I convert a camera that shoots raw.