Creative Automotive Photography with the TruColor® Extreme IR 470

Automotive photography is all about controlling color, reflections, contrast and light. But what happens when you photograph a car using wavelengths beyond what our eyes normally see?

The TruColor® Extreme IR 470 Camera Filter (TCIR470) offers a creative way to completely reinvent automotive photography. Designed for use with a full-spectrum or infrared-converted camera, the TCIR470 combines visible and infrared wavelengths to produce bold false-color images with dramatic color separation.

While infrared photography is often associated with glowing foliage and surreal landscapes, the TCIR470 can be just as striking when the subject is made of paint, metal, chrome and glass. The result? Automotive images that look less like a traditional car shoot and more like something from another world.

Why Use the TCIR470 for Automotive Photography?
Cars are excellent subjects for creative infrared photography because they combine so many different materials in one scene. Glossy paint reflects the surrounding environment. Windshields and windows introduce darker tones and reflections. Chrome and polished metal create bright highlights. Tires and trim provide strong contrast. Meanwhile, pavement, sky and surrounding vegetation respond differently to the mix of visible and infrared light.

With a conventional camera, these elements are familiar. With the Extreme IR 470, their relationships can change dramatically.

The TCIR470 is especially suited to photographers who want to experiment with high-impact false-color IR photography. Because the filter begins transmitting at a shorter wavelength than traditional 590nm, 720nm or 830nm infrared filters, it retains more visible-spectrum information that can be manipulated during post-processing. That gives you tremendous freedom to create intense blues, yellows, golds, reds, cyans and other unexpected color combinations.

Choosing the Right Car and Location
Start with a car that has strong lines, interesting curves or highly reflective paint. Sports cars, vintage vehicles and motorcycles can all make excellent subjects. Then think about the environment. Instead of placing the vehicle in front of a wall or studio backdrop, look for a setting with multiple surfaces and textures. An empty downtown street, parking structure, industrial building, racetrack paddock or roadside overlook can all work well.

For an especially dramatic result, include some sky and vegetation around the vehicle. They don't need to dominate the composition. Instead, they provide additional infrared information that can contrast with the vehicle's harder surfaces.

How to Photograph a Car with the TCIR470

1. Use an IR-Converted or Full-Spectrum Camera. The TCIR470 should be used with an infrared-converted or full-spectrum camera. Standard digital cameras typically have an internal IR-blocking filter over the sensor. This significantly reduces the infrared light reaching the camera and limits the effect you're trying to create. With a compatible converted camera, attach the TCIR470 to your lens just as you would another photographic filter.
2. Shoot in Bright Sunlight. Infrared photography often performs exceptionally well under the kind of bright midday sunlight photographers normally try to avoid. Take advantage of it. Strong sunlight provides plenty of infrared radiation and can create pronounced separation between the vehicle, pavement, sky and surrounding vegetation. For automotive photography, pay attention to the direction of the sun as well. Position the vehicle so its body lines catch the light without creating distracting reflections across the entire side of the car.
3. Watch Your Reflections. This becomes especially important with cars. Automotive paint, windows and chrome are highly reflective, so carefully inspect the vehicle before taking the photograph. Move yourself, the car or the camera slightly to control unwanted reflections. At the same time, don't eliminate every reflection. Reflections of an infrared sky or nearby vegetation across a glossy hood, roof or door panel can become one of the most interesting parts of the final image.
4. Shoot RAW. RAW is the best choice for TCIR470 photography. The image you see directly from the camera is only the starting point. RAW files retain far more information for adjusting white balance, individual color channels, exposure and contrast later. With an extreme false-color filter like the TCIR470, that flexibility is particularly valuable.
5. Experiment with White Balance. Don't worry if the initial photograph looks strange. That's the point. Experiment with a custom white balance either in-camera or during RAW processing. Try sampling pavement, concrete, a neutral surface or even vegetation and compare the results. Different white-balance choices can dramatically alter the colors available for the next stage of editing.

Take It Further with Channel Swapping
Post-processing is where the Extreme IR 470 really earns its name. Manipulating the red and blue channels can produce dramatic shifts throughout the image. You can also experiment with individual RGB channels, hue adjustments and selective color to create a look that fits the vehicle.

One processing approach might produce a deep blue sky behind a bright yellow or gold environment. Another could push the scene toward cyan and orange. A third could retain a nearly natural-looking car while transforming everything surrounding it.

There isn't one "correct" TCIR470 look. That's one of the filter's biggest creative advantages.

Keep the Car Natural—or Transform It Too
Here's another experiment worth trying. Use masks or selective adjustments during editing to separate the car from its surroundings. You can preserve some of the vehicle's original paint color while allowing the TCIR470 effect to dominate the sky, pavement and vegetation. This creates an image where the car appears almost normal inside an otherwise surreal environment.

Or do the opposite. Push the entire image into false color and let the vehicle transform along with the scene. A red sports car might shift into a completely unexpected hue. Chrome can take on unusual reflections. Dark glass can provide dramatic contrast against intensely colored surroundings. The goal isn't accurate color reproduction. It's creative interpretation.

Try Detail Shots, Too
You don't need to photograph the entire vehicle. Move closer. Photograph a hood ornament against an infrared sky. Capture reflections across a polished fender. Frame a wheel and brake assembly against pavement. Photograph a vintage chrome grille with trees reflected in the metal.

The TCIR470 can turn these small details into abstract compositions where shape, texture, reflection and color become more important than the vehicle itself.

A New Way to Photograph a Familiar Subject
The TruColor® Extreme IR 470 (TCIR470) isn't designed to make the world look exactly as your eyes see it. It's designed to give photographers another way to interpret it.

For automotive photographers, that opens an entirely new creative direction. Cars already combine complex shapes, reflective surfaces and contrasting materials. Add visible and infrared wavelengths to the equation, and those familiar surfaces can produce completely unexpected results.

Grab an IR-converted or full-spectrum camera, attach the TCIR470 and take your favorite car somewhere with strong sunlight, open sky and an interesting environment.

Then forget what color everything is supposed to be. With the TruColor® Extreme IR 470, that's where the fun begins.