Pink Grapefruit Infrared Photography

In order to take Pink Grapefruit IR, you just need two things: a full-spectrum camera and a blue 80A filter (7$US). That’s all. Automatic white balance. No channel swapping. No Photoshop wizardry.

I know, you don’t believe me. You probably think: ‘If it was as simple as that, someone would have found it before.’

Well, let me show how Pink Grapefruit IR is done.

Usually, a photo taken with a full-spectrum camera has an heavy Pink-Bubble-Gum look like this:

It lacks contrast, need post-processing, maybe colour-swapping, and so on.

But, once a blue 80A is screwed on the lens, you will get this at once, also without post-processing. I repeat: without _any_ post-processing. It’s like magic.

However, on a bright sunny day, the balance between visible light and infrared rays is different. Consequently, a Pink Grapefruit IR shot will be oversaturated. That was the case with the 4 photos published at the beginning of this threat.

To correct that, I’ve taken a Pink Grapefruit IR shot of a ‘neutral density card’. I don’t know how this is called in English. It’s a series of three cards: one black, one grey and one white.

I’ve taken a shot of the grey one and have created a correction curve under Photoshop.

When a Pink Grapefruit IR shot is oversaturated, I’ll blend 70% or 60% the 'over-the-top' image with its colour-corrected copy (at 30% or 40% - the latter is more yellowish like the photo above). That’s how the 4 images at the beginning of this thread were created.

It’s that simple.

Just pass a blue 80A filter in front of your lens and you’ll see it on the back LCD of your digital camera. You won’t believe your eyes.