The Electrical Engineer

  History If you are reading this you probably already know about the iconic look of Kodak Aerochrome film. The iconic false color Infrared film used for Arial photography produced vibrant red/purple images of vegetation. It's origins where for surveillance as artificial structures would stick out. Eventually it made its way into the hands of photographers. A number of album covers allegedly used the film for its surreal colors. The first artist that made me fascinated by the film was Richard Mosse work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  But if you are like me, between the difficulty and expense of purchasing and using it, I never was able to shoot the real thing. The Basics The best place to start when trying to replicate something ourselves is to take a look at the orginal. Luckily we can view the datasheet  to understand what is happening. On the first page Figure 1. Provides the best information for how the false colors work showing how the different layers are exp...

What is Halation Halation is an effect in film photography where light reflects off the back of the film/film plane and re-exposes the image. In most film it's typically very controlled, and it's a subtle effect you sometimes notice. The below photo has a bit happening on the brightest spots. I honestly never really thought much about it, as while you would see it on very bright objects, it was very tame, and just part of the natural look of film. This is a trend for very bright edges in a film image to bleed into the surrounding area. It tends to be reddish due to how the effect happens. We can make some general observations from this photo. It's reddish in color It's soft and blurry It's only around the brightest highlights It's more pronounced between highlights and much darker parts of the image. With that in mind, it helps to consider what is happening in a simplified cross section of color film. Color film generally works by having 3 light sensitive layer...