Welcome
Project Aerochrome was an experiment in recalling and mimicking a very niche but very unique film stock. First of all, credit goes for the inspiration of this project goes to Jason Kummerfeldt [@grainydays]. Jason had run a lengthy and humorous campaign to get Kodak to bring back the film stock.
What is Aerochrome
Aerochrome is a color infrared film, which is a rarity in of itself. There are several infrared film stocks still available today, but they are only in black & white. What made this stock so unique is the infrared characteristic, because objects both reflect and absorb infrared light, and it is not visible to our human eyes. The most notable would be trees and foliage, because the leaves reflect infrared light. Aerochrome's chemical processing basically takes the colors in the visible spectrum and shifts them, which is why trees have the magenta appearance you see.
The History
The history of Aerochrome is actually quite interesting. Aerochrome was developed in the 1940s by Kodak to be used by the military for reconnaissance photos. This film was used specifically for locating and detecting camouflage in heavily forested and thick jungle environments. The infrared nature of the film helped differentiate natural foliage from the artificial materials.
The Recreation
This project was quite the undertaking to achieve the visual effect, and be able to implement it onto any photo. I'm currently refining it and plan to do some more shoots to lock it in before I make it widely available. However, if you do want to try it out yourself, let me know, and I can provide it to you to use in Lightroom.
Download the Free preset here
Purchase a copy of the preset here
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