Beyond the Landscape: Transforming Cityscapes with the TruColor® Ultimate IR 590

Infrared photography doesn’t have to mean sprawling landscapes and glowing trees. Take the TruColor® Ultimate IR 590 into the city, and familiar streets, buildings and architectural details can become something completely unexpected.

With its combination of infrared and visible-light transmission, the TruColor® Ultimate IR 590 Camera Filter (TCIR590) is an especially creative choice for photographers who want to experiment with bold false-color photography. Instead of simply removing color, the 590nm wavelength leaves photographers with substantial color information that can be manipulated during post-processing. That makes it an ideal filter for an entirely different kind of IR photography: surreal urban and architectural images.

Why Use the TCIR590 for Architecture?
Cities offer something landscapes don’t: a huge variety of materials, textures, shapes and reflections packed into a single frame. Glass. Concrete. Brick. Steel. Asphalt. Clouds. Trees. Signs. Cars. Each can react differently when photographed with infrared light, creating unexpected separation between objects that may look relatively similar in a conventional visible-light photograph.

The TCIR590 is particularly well suited to this type of experimentation because it is a 590nm IR-pass filter designed for full-spectrum or IR-converted cameras. Unlike deeper infrared wavelengths that remove most visible color, 590nm photography retains more visible red, orange and yellow wavelengths.
The result is an image with plenty of information for creative color processing. Instead of trying to reproduce reality, you can completely reinterpret it.

Try This: Create a False-Color IR Cityscape
For this project, look for an urban scene that combines several different elements. A great composition might include a modern glass building, older brick architecture, a few trees, a sidewalk or street and a large section of sky. The vegetation is still useful, but it isn’t the main subject. Instead, it becomes an accent against the harder architectural surfaces surrounding it.

With the right processing, you can create an image where the sky becomes a rich blue or cyan, vegetation shifts toward gold or yellow and buildings retain dramatic neutral, metallic or warm tones.
The contrast between natural and manufactured materials can make the scene look almost futuristic.

How to Shoot with the TruColor® Ultimate IR 590

1. Start with an IR-Capable Camera. The TCIR590 is intended for use with a full-spectrum or IR-converted camera. A standard digital camera contains an internal filter designed to block much of the infrared spectrum. An IR-converted or full-spectrum camera allows the infrared wavelengths needed to create the effect to reach the sensor. Attach the TCIR590 to your compatible lens and camera setup before composing your shot.
2. Look for Strong Sunlight. Bright sunlight can be your friend in infrared photography. Try shooting in the late morning or early afternoon when sunlight is strong. While photographers often avoid these hours for conventional photography, infrared can transform that harsh light into something much more interesting. Direct sunlight also helps bring out the dramatic IR response of any vegetation in the scene.
3. Include a Dramatic Sky. Don’t crop the sky out. Blue skies and scattered clouds can become some of the strongest elements in an infrared architectural photograph. The contrast between a processed IR sky, bright clouds and sharp geometric buildings can give the finished photograph tremendous depth. Try composing from a lower angle and letting a building extend upward into the sky.
4. Experiment with Reflections. Glass buildings, windows and water provide another creative opportunity. Infrared wavelengths don't necessarily interact with reflective and transparent materials exactly as visible light does. Reflections can therefore add another layer of unpredictability to the photograph. Look for mirrored buildings, storefront windows, parked cars or water features that reflect the surrounding architecture and sky.
5. Shoot RAW. For the TCIR590, RAW is strongly recommended. The real creative power of 590nm photography often appears during post-processing. RAW files preserve significantly more image information, giving you greater flexibility when adjusting white balance, color channels, contrast and individual hues.

The Creative Step: Channel Swapping
This is where the TCIR590 really begins to separate itself from deeper infrared filters. A 590nm image straight from the camera will often have a strong warm red or orange cast. That isn't the finished photograph – it's your starting point.

One popular approach is a red/blue channel swap.

By exchanging or manipulating the red and blue channels during post-processing, you can dramatically change the relationship between the sky, architecture and vegetation.
Depending on the scene and processing style, you might create:

• Deep blue or cyan skies
• Gold, yellow or cream-colored foliage
• Bright white clouds
• Neutral or metallic architecture
• Strong separation between natural and manufactured surfaces
• Bold complementary color combinations

Don't feel obligated to stop at a traditional channel swap, either.

Try selective hue adjustments, split toning or individual color-channel modifications. The TCIR590 gives you a broad creative starting point, so two photographers can shoot the same building and produce completely different final images.

Go Beyond "Correct" Infrared Color
There really isn't one correct color palette for false-color infrared photography. That's part of the appeal.
Try pushing your photograph toward a blue-and-gold cinematic palette. Or create an almost sci-fi combination of cyan skies and pale yellow vegetation. Desaturate the architecture while keeping selected IR colors intense. 

You can even take the image in the opposite direction and reduce most of the color, leaving only subtle false-color accents.

Think of the TCIR590 image as raw material rather than a finished photograph.

What Subjects Work Best?
Once you start looking for urban IR compositions, you'll find opportunities almost everywhere. Modern glass architecture can create dramatic reflections. Historic brick buildings provide texture and contrast. Bridges offer repeating structural patterns. City parks combine architecture and IR-reflective vegetation. Downtown streets introduce signs, cars and people into the composition.

Even abandoned industrial buildings can become compelling subjects when photographed against an infrared sky. 

The goal isn't simply to document the building. It's to photograph a familiar place in a spectrum our eyes can't normally see – and then decide how you want that invisible information to look.

A Different Side of the Ultimate IR 590
The TruColor® Ultimate IR 590 (TCIR590) is one of the most flexible choices for photographers interested in colorful infrared photography. Its combination of IR sensitivity and higher visible-light transmission creates extensive possibilities for channel swapping, false-color processing and experimental editing.

And you don't need to travel somewhere exotic to use it.

Take your full-spectrum or IR-converted camera downtown. Walk through an industrial neighborhood. Photograph a bridge. Look up at a glass skyscraper. Find the places you've photographed dozens of times before.
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Then see what happens when you photograph them at 590nm.
The city you know might suddenly look like somewhere else entirely.