AFFINITY PHOTO
Use simple Adjustment Layer effects, blend mode tricks and colour changes to your photos
01 ADJUST COLOUR BRIGHTNESS
Open the image into Affinity Photo (photos of trees and foliage work well, or use our free image). Go to the Layers Panel, click the Adjustment icon at the bottom and choose Black And White. Change the Blend Mode of the Layer to Luminosity, then use the sliders to darken the blues and lighten the greens and yellows.
02 INVERT THE COLOURS
Click the Adjustment Layer icon again and then choose Invert to invert the image to a negative. Next, go to the Layer Blend Mode drop-down and change it from Normal to Color. This gives you the beginnings of the colour change that you see when you use an infrared camera.
03 SWAP RED AND BLUE
Click the Adjustment Layer icon once again and choose Channel Mixer. We need to swap the red and blue channels (which is what we would also do when processing a true infrared image). Select the Red channel and set Red 0%, Blue 100%. Next select the Blue channel and set Red 100%, Blue 0%.
04 GIVE IT A GLOW
Go to Filter>New Live Filter Layer>Blur>Diffuse Glow. Experiment with the settings to make the highlights glow slightly. We’ve used Radius 8px, Intensity 15%, Threshold 50%, Opacity 50%. Close the dialog. Because it’s a Live Filter, you can adjust the settings at any time by double-clicking the layer.
BLACK AND WHITE INFRARED
The glowing foliage and intensely blue skies you get with infrared photography can look stunning when converted to monochrome. Just as we’ve replicated the look of colour infrared here, you can al
