PictureFX Kodak Aerochrome

What is Kodak Aerochrome and what was it used for.
The first versions of infrared film date back to the time of the First World War for spectroscopic analysis.
In the 1930s it was made commercially available and quickly became very popular among photographers, and it was also used in the news for landscape and aerial photos, and even in the cinematic world in movies.
By the end of the 1930s and early 1940s, some 30 varieties were marketed under different brands.
In the early 1940s, Kodak developed the Aero Reversal film intended to detect camouflage. After the war it became known as Kodak Aerochrome 1443.
In the 1960s it became very popular and was used for the covers of records by artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa.
The unusual colors and effects that the film gave, also fitted well with the 60s flower power and hippes era.
Currently you can still find black and white infrared film, but the remaining Aerochrome color rolls are getting extremely scarse ! There is a fake from Lomography, the Lomochrome Purple 400, which simulates the same feeling, but is not real infrared.

The real Kodak Aerochrome product is very sought after, and strangely enough these days more than before.
Possibly because it has become so scarce, it is therefore quite expensive for those who can still find it.
But most of all I think it’s for the film’s unpredictable behaviour, unlike anything you ever seen before.
At least, that’s what users write and say about it.

But now you can recreate the Kodak Aerochrome effect also digitally, the process is then simply done afterwards by means of a Lut or Cube Film Simulation from PictureFX.

I already gained experience in IR simulation with the earlier PictureFX Faux Infrared, of which six versions have been developed. So this helped pointing me in the right direction for the new Aerochrome.