A warm and bright black and white photo of an analog camera with a strap

B&W Infrared


B&W Infrared simulates the look of black and white infrared photography. It produces monochromatic film images that are bright and deeply toned. With this film preset, you can easily get the unmistakable radiance of an image shot without an infrared filter — without having to modify your camera.

Collection: Black and White Presets, Film Presets, Warm Presets
Best for: Outdoor Scenes, Detailed Photos, Landscapes
Style: Deeply Toned, Brilliant

Like infrared photography itself, B&W Infrared is best used for photographs taken outdoors, especially of landscapes. You may also consider using it on dim photographs given its brilliance

If your Instagram feed needs an artistic and professional look, too, consider applying this to your photos. They will surely look compelling and stand out from the rest.

Converts Images to Brilliant Black and White

A dim infrared photo of a woman lying down on by a waterfall

Bright and Vivid. As a monochrome preset, B&W Infrared first switches the processing to black and white mode. It then sets the warm base color temperature. This will blend well with the custom adjustments in the mix channels later on.

The preset further enhances the tones by intensifying them. It initially does this by increasing contrast and clarity levels. You can examine the result in the above example. B&W Infrared not only converts the image to rich monochrome but also illuminates some of its elements.

Moderates Light and Dark Sections of the Image

An infrared photo of a man standing in front of a mountain landscape

Contrasty B&W. The preset proceeds to deepen tones and moderate the photo’s brightest areas. It softens whites and highlights, then brightens blacks and shadows. These enhancements make sure that the image will retain as much detail as possible, even with the heightened brilliance.

To add that noticeable depth and crisp high-contrast tones, B&W Infrared tweaks blacks and shadows further in the tone curve. You can look at the After image above as an example: the mountains now have rich complex tones, the subject appears radiant, and the trees are much more clearly defined.

Accentuate Tones with a Soft Brown Tint

A woman crossing a wooden bridge in a forest

Complex Toning. The preset adds a brown tone in the highlights as a soft accent to the black and white image. This, along with the initial adjustments in temperature, replicates the distinct warmth that infrared photography produces. After all, with the infrared filter removed, the camera processes it as visible light, thereby producing such a unique effect.

Converts Colors into Brilliant Tones

A man and a woman at a cafe

Illuminated. Finally, this is where most of the preset’s radiance comes from. This is also where it blends tone to more accurately replicate the infrared photo aesthetic. It boosts the luminance of red, orange, purple, magenta, and green — these are the usual colors of skin tones and nature, and they reflect the most infrared light. Then, in contrast, it lowers that of aqua and blue.

B&W Infrared preset is for Lightroom Mobile, Desktop and…

Like all our presets, you can absolutely use B&W Infrared preset as is, right out of the box. With any preset, you might need to make adjustments to accommodate your specific camera, settings, lighting, and subject matter.

If you want more presets like this, be sure to check out our black and white presets and Lightroom film presets.

  • Entirely Adjustable
  • Compatible with Lightroom 4, 5, 6 and CC
  • Performs with both PC, Mac, and Mobile
  • Applicable to both RAW and JPG images
  • 100% Free

Free Lightroom Preset by Forrest Lane

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