Infrared photography and video effects are a new trend in 2018. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create an infrared photo effect in Adobe Photoshop using adjustment layers and blending modes.

I created an Infrared Photo Effect Template with different photo effects and overlay textures using the same method for my GraphicRiver portfolio.

Tutorial Assets

You will need the following resources in order to complete this tutorial:

• Photo

1. How to Prepare the Document

Step 1

Go to File > New and create a new file to work with. Use the following settings: 

• Width: 3000 px
• Height: 2000 px
• Resolution: 300 dpi

Step 2

Go to File > Place and put your image inside the document.

Step 3

Resize the image to the borders of the document and click Enter.

2. How to Create an Infrared Photo Effect

Step 1

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Invert.

Step 2

Change the Blending Mode of the adjustment layer to Color.

Step 3

After that, we need to go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer.

Step 4

Change the Blending Mode of the adjustment layer to Color as we did before.

Step 5

Select channel mixer layer and use the following settings: 

• Output Channel: Red; Red: +125%
• Output Channel: Blue; Blue: +135%

Step 6

Create another channel mixer adjustment layer and change the Opacity to 95%.

Step 7

Use the following settings for this adjusment layer: 

• Output Channel: Green; Red: +15%; Green: +105%
• Output Channel: Red; Red: +115%; Green: +15%.

Step 8

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Exposure and set the Offset to +0.0300.

Step 9

Now we need to change the color balance of the midtones. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance.

Step 10

Set the following settings: 

• Tone: Midtones
• Cyan: -15
• Magenta: -25
• Yellow: -10
• Preserve Luminosity: On

Step 11

Now let's create the last adjustment layer to increase the contrast. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black and White.

Step 12

Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Overlay and the Opacity to 15%.

Awesome Work, You're Now Done!

In this way, we can create an infrared photo effect using adjustment layers and blending modes in Adobe Photoshop. Here is our final result:

If you would like to create similar infrared photo effects in a few simple clicks, then check out my Infrared Photo Effect Template item in my GraphicRiver portfolio.

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