Street photographers have been enamored with the look of infrared films. But, photographers have wanted it digitally for a while, which hasn’t been easy to create, until today.
Really Nice Images (RNI) has released RNI Aerochrome, a new preset for Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw that emulates the look of Kodak Aerochrome, a discontinued specialty film that was created mainly for military and surveillance purposes. Aerochrome was sensitive to both visible and infrared spectrums. It was rendering the vegetation in a kind of surreal crimson and pink colors, making people and man-made structures more visible in the surrounding vegetation.

Emulating the look of Kodak Aerochrome with digital images is no easy feat, but RNI says it’s preset was meticulously ‘handcrafted by some of the most pedantic digital imaging and film photography experts out there.’ In total, there are 18 variations of the RNI Aerochrome filter in the pack, alongside the RNI Toolkit, which offers add-on settings to further tweak the image.

“In terms of the origins – most of these new profiles are inspired by various versions of Kodak Aerochrome. And a few looks a probably coming from some mysterious infrared movie film used by Richard Mosse on one of his trips to Congo. Mosse produced quite a significant body of work while documenting the civil war in Kongo using Aerochrome and inadvertently brought this visual style to the spotlight of the internet fame” says the company.

The RNI Aerochrome preset pack costs $96 and works with Lightroom CC, Lightroom Mobile and Adobe Camera Raw. RNI says it’s not currently possible to port the preset to Capture One.

More info on RNI’s website.