Candy Pink Infrared

In this video, I’ll explore Candy Pink Infrared photography. This flavor of infrared uses lens filters designed for film to capture cotton candy-like images straight out of your full-spectrum camera. These filters, the 80A, KB-20, X0, and X1, can transform foliage and skies into surreal, vibrant landscapes. This video breaks down the techniques behind this unique infrared style, from rich orange hues to dreamy pinks and teals. These filters unlock a new realm of creative possibilities for your infrared photography.

Candy Pink infrared filter tests

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Transcript for Candy Pink Infrared. Duration: 9:58.

• 0:00 Can you get cotton candy like infrared straight out of camera? That's the idea behind candy pink infrared. I've got a stack of old vintage filters. Let's give those a try along with a full spectrum camera and see what we get.
• 0:15 Let's start with the full spectrum image. So this image was shot on a full spectrum camera with no external filters. So we're getting all of the ultraviolet, visible light, and near infrared coming into the sensor. So as you can see here, this is processed with Adobe Color, just the standard Adobe profile. When I white balance,
• 0:36 I've white balanced all of these images on the pavement here in the foreground. And when I white balance this image, it comes up at 2800 Kelvin. The look of this image is rather bland. Full spectrum images in and of themselves tend not to be as exciting, but this is our starting point before we add additional filters.
• 0:55 Let's start with the 80A filter. This is a Hoya 80A. And what this filter is designed to do is to convert a 3200 Kelvin light source into a 5500 Kelvin light source, which was useful for shooting with film because film, of course, is set to a specific color temperature. And so this could adjust between the color
• 1:17 temperature of your light source and the color temperature of your film. If you look at the transmission chart, this is the chart for the 80A, 80B, and 80C. We're looking at the 80A here. The red line, you can see that this filter transmits a lot of blues, but then it rolls off when we get towards the greens and the reds and the infrareds. So that gives you an
• 1:37 idea of how this filter is going to work. It's going to transmit blue light, but not so much greens or reds or infrared. The 80A filter is commonly available and pretty affordable. Let's compare a shot taken with the 80A to the full spectrum camera. On the left here is a shot with a full spectrum camera, no filters. And then on the right is
• 1:58 the shot with the same full spectrum camera with just the 80A filter applied. As you can see, there's more saturation in the foliage and And the sky is slightly bluer. The next filter that I'd like to take a look at is the KB20. In this particular case, this is the B plus W 62E KB20. This does a similar thing with film
• 2:23 photography. It converts a 2600 Kelvin light source to 5500 Kelvins. And as you can see in the transmission chart here, we're looking at the dark blue line. So it starts transmitting a lot of blues and then it rolls off in the greens. A little bit of a peak here in the yellow green rolls back down into the reds. But
• 2:45 interestingly, it rolls back up and transmits infrared light. So the KB20 filter is kind of a key filter in a lot of the combinations that I'll be showing. The challenge is that this filter is much harder to find. So if you can get your hands on a KB20 through a swap meet or eBay or
• 3:05 used camera source, then get your hands on a KB20. Here we're comparing the 80A filter on the left, which white balanced to around 5100 Kelvins, to the KB20 filter on the right, which white balanced to about 3500 Kelvins. Notice that there's even more saturation in the KB20 shot on the right compared to the 80A on the left.
• 3:31 There's more brightness in the foliage, which is due to the additional infrared wavelengths being passed, and the sky is more saturated as well. Next, let's take a look at using both the 80A and KB20 filter together at the same time on a full spectrum camera. You'll notice that the foliage looks quite orange,
• 3:51 the sky is very blue, and currently the white balance of this shot was set to 50000 Kelvins, so it peaked out at the top end of the scale. Now let's take a look at comparing each of these filters individually plus the combined version. So in the upper left, we have the 80A filter, in the upper right
• 4:10 we have the KB20, and then in the bottom we have the stack of using both the 80A and the KB20 filter at the same time. If you're looking to produce a very nice infrared image without having to do a color swap, then using the 80A and KB20 filter together does produce a very nice result.
• 4:30 One of the challenges with this combination is that you're limited to the white balance. You can see the white balance over here tops out at 50000 Kelvin, I don't have much flexibility, I can lower the amount, but I can't increase it. One of the things that you can do is you can apply my
• 4:46 Chrome profile from the Chrome Profile Pack, this is a free profile pack. Once I apply this filter and set a white balance, you can see that the white balance is now 3400, this is much more manageable, so if I wanted to make adjustments to the white balance little cooler or a little warmer, now I would have the
• 5:03 flexibility to do that because of the Chrome Profile Pack. So on the left we have the 80A and KB20 stack with the Adobe color profile, the white balance is capped out at 50000 Kelvins. On the right I've made a virtual copy of the same image and using the Chrome profile I've reset the white balance to give me
• 5:23 a little bit more flexibility. The other thing that you'll notice though is that when I use the Chrome profile right, the blues are a little more manageable, they're not quite so blown out, this is a very saturated blue sky, and a lot of these edges look a little sharp, whereas the edges look a little cleaner over here on the right hand side.
• 5:44 So using the chrome profile will give you better control of your colors when using these two filters together. Alright, let's throw a couple more filters into the mix. This is the X0 and the X1. So in both cases these are Hoya filters, this is the Hoya GX0 and this is the Hoya GX1. And the Hoya X0 is a yellow green filter that is designed to darken the reds
• 6:12 and blues when shooting with [black and white] film. The Hoya X1 is a green filter that darkens the reds and blues even more. These filters are commonly available both new and used, If we look on the chart here you can see what's happening with both of these filters. X0, this light green line, blocks many of the blues but then opens up towards the
• 6:35 greens and the yellows and then blocks more of the reds and then opens back up towards the infrared part of the spectrum. The X1, does the same thing but even more strongly. So it blocks out even more blues but opens up towards the greens and then closes back down as we get towards the reds.
• 6:52 So let's see what happens when we add these two filters to the stack we already have. So here is a test shot taken with the KB20 and the X0 filter, that yellow-green filter. You can see that this makes the foliage pink when we use these two filters. The sky has a bit of a hint of a teal tone to it and the
• 7:13 white balance for this particular shot is 2700 kelvins. Now let's do a comparison with and without the X0 filter. So on the left we have the KB20 by itself and on the right we have a stack of the KB20 plus the X0 filter. So you can see that the X0 filter transforms the foliage from yellow to pink and it transforms the sky from a blue sky to a teal
• 7:42 sky. This is starting to give us that candy pink look. Now let's see what happens when we add in the 80A filter. So on the left we have a stack of the KB20 filter and the X0 filter. On the right, plus the 80A. So all three of those filters are used on the right and we can see that this adds a
• 8:03 little bit more saturation to the foliage and it takes the sky little bit from its teal a little bit back towards blue and this creates a very pleasing look. This image was shot with the KB20 and the X1 filter, that green filter. Color temperature here ended up being 6200 Kelvin. So we can see that the foliage
• 8:24 has turned from a yellow to a hot pink or red with the addition of the X1 filter, and the sky has a nice teal look to it. you can see how dramatic the impact of the X1 filter is. On the left, we have the KB20 filter by itself, and then on the right, we have the KB20 plus the X1. The
• 8:45 The X1 transforms this foliage to a hot pink and the sky to teal, and then we have an even stronger candy pink look. Finally, let's add in the 80A filter. So on the left, we have the KB20 plus the X1 green filter stack. is set to about 6200 Kelvin, and then on the right, we have three filters. We have
• 9:09 the KB20, the 80A, and the X1, and this gives us a color balance temperature of about 7300 Kelvin. The addition of the 80A filter brightens up the teal sky and transforms the foliage from that hot pink red look to more of an autumn orange. Thanks to Jean-Pierre Martel, James Herr, and everyone who's contributed to the
• 9:34 Candy Pink discussions in the DP Review Forums. Links are in the description. Which of these images is your favorite? I have more filters coming for additional tests. Which filter combinations have you used on a full spectrum camera? What combinations would you like to see? Let us know in the comments.
• 9:51 If you find these videos helpful on your infrared photography journey, like, subscribe, or comment. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks.