As a professional photographer, I’ve seen styles come and go. But some looks just have a timeless grip on our imagination. The Kodak Aerochrome look is one of them. That wild, surreal, false-color world where green trees turn magenta and skies go a deep, moody cyan is nothing short of magic. Since the film was discontinued, photographers have been chasing that dragon. We all want to find the perfect “Aerochrome Lightroom preset.”

But here’s the truth: getting that look is about more than just a one-click preset. It’s about understanding why the film worked. And in our modern digital world, we have tools that go far beyond what a static preset can do. We can use AI to create a dynamic style that truly adapts.

Key Takeaways

  • Aerochrome Was a Special Film: Kodak Aerochrome was a “false-color” infrared film. It was designed to see light that we can’t, turning healthy green plants (which reflect IR light) into bright red or magenta.
  • It’s Discontinued: You can no longer buy and shoot with this film, so digital simulation is our only option.
  • Presets Are a Starting Point: A Lightroom preset can get you part of the way there. It works by using tools like the Channel Mixer and HSL panel to swap colors.
  • Presets Are Static and “Dumb”: The biggest problem is that a preset applies the exact same settings to every photo. But the Aerochrome look depends heavily on the specific greens and light in your photo.
  • Manual Tools Give Control: You can build your own “preset” in Lightroom using the Channel Mixer and HSL panels. This gives you more control but is very time-consuming.
  • AI Is the Modern Solution: A preset is static. An AI profile is dynamic.
  • Imagen Changes the Game: Instead of a static preset, you can use Imagen to create a Personal AI Profile. You “teach” Imagen your Aerochrome style, and it then applies that style intelligently to each photo, adapting for different light and subjects.
  • Train Your Own “Smart Preset”: You can even use a Lite Personal AI Profile in Imagen. You feed it a simple preset, and it learns to apply that preset’s logic in a smarter, more adaptive way.

What Was Kodak Aerochrome? A Look Back at the Legend

To recreate a look, you first have to understand it. You can’t just copy. You have to know the “why.” Aerochrome wasn’t just some novelty film. It had a real, scientific purpose that gave it such a unique artistic quality.

The Origins: From Camouflage to Art

This film wasn’t made for landscape artists or portrait pros. It was a military tool. Kodak Aerochrome (and its relatives) was developed around World War II. Its purpose was simple: camouflage detection.

How do you spot an enemy hiding in the jungle? From the air, a green-painted tank looks just like a green tree. But the film knew better. Healthy, living trees and foliage reflect a huge amount of infrared light. Paint, canvas, and dead leaves do not.

On Aerochrome film, that high-IR-reflecting foliage turned a brilliant, unmissable red or magenta. The “fake” green paint of the tank stayed a dull, dark color. Suddenly, the hidden was revealed. It was a tool for seeing the unseen.

What Made Aerochrome Look So Unique?

It’s called a “false-color” film. It didn’t capture colors the way our eyes do. Its layers were sensitive to different light spectrums, including near-infrared.

Here’s a simple breakdown of what it did:

  • Infrared Light: This became Red in the final image.
  • Visible Red Light: This became Green in the final image.
  • Visible Green Light: This became Blue in the final image.
  • Visible Blue Light: This was usually filtered out with a yellow or orange filter on the lens.

The result is that iconic, otherworldly palette:

  • Foliage (trees, grass): Healthy plants are bright with IR light, so they turned a shocking pink, red, or magenta.
  • Skies: A blue sky has very little IR light, so it rendered as a deep blue or dark cyan.
  • Water: Water absorbs IR light, so it often looked very dark, almost black.
  • Skin Tones: Skin is somewhat reflective of IR light, giving people a “waxy” or creamy, pale look.

Why We Can’t Just Buy It Anymore

Like so many great film stocks, its time came to an end. The rise of digital imaging and sensing made specialty films like Aerochrome obsolete for their original military and scientific uses. The demand from artists wasn’t enough to keep the complex, expensive manufacturing going. Kodak officially discontinued Aerochrome in 2009.

That’s why we’re here. The only way to get this look now is to simulate it.

The Enduring Appeal for Modern Photographers

Why do we still love this look? It’s not just a gimmick. It transforms the familiar. It takes a simple landscape photo and turns it into a scene from another planet. It forces the viewer to see the world differently. It’s dramatic, it’s surreal, and it’s beautiful. As photographers, we are always looking for new ways to show the world. Aerochrome gives us a powerful, new (old) language to do it.

The Challenge of Digital Simulation: Why It’s Not So Simple

Okay, so we just need to make greens red and skies blue, right? If only it were that easy. As a professional editor, I can tell you that simulating a film stock—especially this one—is full of challenges.

It’s More Than a Simple Color Shift

You can’t just go into the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) panel in Lightroom and drag the green slider over to magenta. Well, you can, but the result often looks flat, digital, and fake.

The Aerochrome look is about light, not just color. It reacted to a whole spectrum of light (infrared) that your digital camera sensor actively tries to block. Every digital camera has a filter on the sensor specifically to stop IR light from “polluting” the image. We are starting from a place of missing information. We have to fake what the IR light would have been doing.

The Problem with Standard Presets

A standard “Aerochrome Lightroom preset” you buy or download is a static, one-size-fits-all tool. It’s a saved list of slider settings. It might apply a specific Channel Mixer setting, a Tone Curve, and some HSL adjustments.

Here’s the problem: it applies those exact same settings to every single photo.

A preset that was built on a photo of a bright, sunny forest will look terrible when applied to a portrait in the shade. The skin tones will go bizarre, and the colors will be all wrong. The preset has no intelligence. It can’t “see” that one photo has more green than another. It just applies the same recipe. This is the single biggest frustration for photographers trying to get this look.

Digital Infrared (IR) Photography vs. Simulation

There is another way: “true” digital IR photography. This involves sending your camera to a specialist to have the IR-blocking filter on the sensor physically removed. It’s a permanent, expensive modification.

With a modified camera, you can capture actual infrared light. Then, you can use a process called a “channel swap” in Photoshop to create a true digital IR image. This is a very cool, very technical hobby. But it’s not practical for 99% of professional photographers. We aren’t going to carry a separate, modified camera body just for this one look.

So, we are left with simulation. Our goal is to create the feeling of Aerochrome using the tools we have.

Limitations of Simulating a Film’s Soul

We have to accept that a digital file will never be a 1:1 copy of a film scan. Film has grain, “halation” (glowing highlights), and subtle color-crossovers that are incredibly complex. We can get close. We can make something beautiful. But we are creating an interpretation, not a clone. And that’s okay. Our goal is to make a compelling image, not a perfect scientific replica.

The Preset Approach: Simulating Aerochrome in Lightroom

This is where most people start. Let’s build our own “Aerochrome preset” right in Lightroom Classic. This is a fantastic way to learn exactly what’s happening under the hood. The main tool we will use is one that many photographers never touch: the Calibration panel, and its hidden “big brother,” the Channel Mixer.

(Note: The Channel Mixer is found inside the Calibration panel. You’ll see a drop-down menu under “Process” that often defaults to “V5” or “V6.” Click the “Calibration” title bar. This reveals the R, G, and B channel mixers.)

How an “Aerochrome Lightroom Preset” Tries to Work

The entire “trick” to this look is to re-map the color channels. We want to tell Lightroom: “When you see green in this photo, I want you to render it as red.”

The most powerful tool for this is the Channel Mixer.

Step-by-Step: The Manual Lightroom Adjustments

Here is the deep-dive, step-by-step process. This is what you are “buying” when you get a preset.

Step 1: The Channel Mixer (The Core Tool)

This is the engine room of our preset. In Lightroom Classic, go to the Develop module, scroll down to the Calibration panel, and find the channel mixers.

We are going to do a “channel swap.” The classic swap for this look is to take the Red Channel and the Green Channel and swap their information.

1. Red Primary Channel:

  • This controls what makes up the color red.
  • Set Red: to 0
  • Set Green: to +100
  • Set Blue: to 0

What this does: You just told Lightroom, “For the Red channel, ignore all the red information. Instead, build the Red channel using 100% of the Green channel’s information.”

2. Green Primary Channel:

  • This controls what makes up the color green.
  • Set Red: to +100
  • Set Green: to 0
  • Set Blue: to 0

What this does: You told Lightroom, “For the Green channel, ignore all the green information. Build it using 100% of the Red channel’s information.”

3. Blue Primary Channel:

  • We’ll leave this one alone for now, but you can get some interesting effects by changing the Blue slider here. A common tweak is to set Blue to -100 and Green to +100 to push skies bluer.

Just by doing this, your photo will look insane. Green trees will pop as red or orange. Skies will go a weird yellow or blue. It’s a great start. But it’s messy. Now we refine.

Step 2: HSL/Color Panel

The Channel Mixer did the heavy lifting. The HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) panel is where we do the fine-tuning.

  • Hue:
    • Reds/Oranges: Your greens are now in this range. You can slide the Red and Orange hue sliders to shift them from a fiery red to a deep magenta or a lighter pink. This is your main creative control.
    • Yellows: Often, skies or highlights can turn a sickly yellow. Drag the Yellow hue slider to shift it towards orange or green to clean it up.
    • Greens: This slider may not do much (since we swapped it), but it can help with any leftover green.
    • Aquas/Blues: This controls your sky. The Channel Mixer might have made your sky yellow or green. Use the Aqua and Blue sliders to pull it back to a nice, deep cyan or dark blue.
  • Saturation:
    • Reds/Oranges: This is your “foliage” saturation. Be careful. It’s easy to make it look like a glowing, over-saturated mess.
    • Aquas/Blues: This controls the richness of your sky.
  • Luminance:
    • Reds/Oranges: This makes your foliage brighter or darker.
    • Aquas/Blues: This is a great way to get those dark, dramatic skies. Pull the Luminance of Blue and Aqua down.

Step 3: Tone Curve & Basic Panel

Your image is probably looking a bit flat. The original Aerochrome film had a ton of contrast.

  • Tone Curve: Add a classic S-Curve. This will deepen the shadows and brighten the highlights, adding the “pop” that the image needs. This is critical.
  • Basic Panel:
    • Temp/Tint: Your white balance will be very weird. You will need to adjust the Temp and Tint sliders by eye for each photo. This is another weakness of the preset.
    • Exposure: Adjust as needed.
    • Contrast: Add more here if you like.
    • Clarity/Dehaze: A little bit of Clarity or Dehaze can really make the image pop, but don’t go too far, or it will look like a bad HDR.

Step 4: Grain and Texture

Finally, it’s a film simulation. Go to the Effects panel and add some Grain. This helps break up the smooth, “digital” feel and adds to the illusion. Don’t go crazy. A little goes a long way.

Tutorial: Building Your Own Basic Aerochrome Preset

Let’s put it all together.

  1. Find a Good Photo: Start with a photo that has a lot of healthy green foliage and a nice blue sky. A simple landscape.
  2. Go to Develop: Open the photo in the Develop module.
  3. Reset: Reset all the settings to zero.
  4. Panel: Calibration
    • In the Red Primary channel: Set Red: 0, Green: +100.
    • In the Green Primary channel: Set Red: +100, Green: 0.
  5. Panel: Tone Curve
    • Add a gentle S-curve. Click in the middle to anchor. Click in the shadows and drag down. Click in the highlights and drag up.
  6. Panel: HSL/Color
    • Go to Hue.
    • Drag Red and Orange until you find a pink/magenta you like.
    • Drag Blue and Aqua until your sky is a nice cyan.
    • Go to Luminance.
    • Drag Blue and Aqua down to make the sky dark and moody.
    • Drag Red and Orange up to make the foliage “pop.”
  7. Panel: Basic
    • Play with the Temp and Tint sliders to get a white balance that looks good. This is pure creative choice.
    • Add a touch of Clarity (e.g., +10).
    • Add a touch of Vibrance (e.g., +15).
  8. Panel: Effects
    • Add Grain (e.g., Amount: 20, Size: 25, Roughness: 50).
  9. Save Your Preset:
    • Go to the Presets panel on the left. Click the + icon.
    • Click Create Preset…
    • Give it a name, like “My Aerochrome Base.”
    • Important: In the settings to include, make sure you check Calibration, Tone Curve, HSL, Effects, and Basic Panel (but you might want to un-check White Balance and Exposure, since those will change for every photo).
    • Click Create.

You’ve done it! You now have a base “Aerochrome Lightroom preset.”

The Pros and Cons of Using a Static Preset for This Look

As you can see, this is a complex process. And you’ll quickly find the limits of this preset.

  • Pros:
    • It’s a very fast starting point.
    • It’s a “look” you can apply to a whole set for a quick review.
  • Cons:
    • It’s not smart. It will fail miserably on many photos.
    • It breaks skin tones. If you apply this to a portrait, the person’s skin (which has reds) will be turned green (because we swapped Red and Green). It’s a mess. You would have to manually mask out the person on every single photo.
    • It’s not adaptive. It doesn’t know how much green is in a photo. It just applies the same hammer blow to a tiny patch of grass as it does to a huge forest.

This is the wall I hit. As a pro, I don’t have time to manually re-adjust a “preset” for every single photo. That defeats the purpose.

Beyond the Preset: The Photoshop Method for Deeper Control

For a while, the “pro” answer was to use Photoshop. It’s a “competitor” to Lightroom in a way, but really they work together. The method in Photoshop is functionally the same, but it gives you one huge advantage: Layers and Masks.

Why Use Photoshop for This?

The main reason is to fix the skin tone problem.

  1. You can bring your photo into Photoshop.
  2. Add a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer.
  3. Apply the same settings we did in Lightroom (Red channel = 0/100/0, Green channel = 100/0/0).
  4. Add an HSL Adjustment Layer to tweak the colors.
  5. Here’s the key: The adjustment layers come with Layer Masks. You can just take a black brush and “paint out” the effect from your subject’s skin.

This is much more controlled. You can have the surreal Aerochrome background and a mostly normal-looking person. It’s a classic technique for this look.

The Limitations of This Manual Method

The downside? Time. In a wedding gallery, I might have 800 photos. Am I going to take 200 of them into Photoshop, one by one, and manually paint masks? Absolutely not. I’d have to charge my client twice as much. It’s not a sustainable workflow for a professional.

It’s a great technique for a single, fine-art print. It’s a terrible technique for batch processing.

The AI Approach: Achieving a Dynamic, Adaptive Style with Imagen

This brings me to the solution I use in my own business. We’ve established the problem: static presets are dumb. They don’t adapt. And manual editing is too slow.

So, what’s the solution? We need a tool that is fast like a preset but smart like a manual edit.

This is exactly what AI editing is for. And this is where I use Imagen.

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The Problem with All Static Presets (The “Why”)

Let’s restate this, because it’s the whole point.

  • A preset applies static settings. (Example: “Set HSL Green to +150”).
  • An AI profile applies a dynamic style. (Example: “I see this specific shade of green, in this specific light, and I know you like to make it this specific shade of magenta. On this other photo, the green is different, so I’ll apply a different set of HSL/Calibration settings to get to the same target magenta look.”)

See the difference? It’s the difference between a recipe and a chef. A preset is a recipe. An Imagen profile is a personal AI chef who knows how you like to cook.

How Imagen Solves the Style Replication Problem

Imagen is a desktop app (that uses cloud processing) that integrates directly with my Lightroom Classic catalogs. It doesn’t replace Lightroom. It works with it.

The “product” that solves our problem is the Personal AI Profile. This is not a preset. This is a custom-built AI model that learns your unique editing style.

My goal is to create an “Aerochrome” style. I don’t want a static preset. I want an AI assistant that can apply my Aerochrome style for me.

Tutorial: Creating a “Personal Aerochrome Profile” with Imagen

Here is the professional workflow. This is how you use Imagen to create the ultimate, adaptive “Aerochrome” look.

Step 1: Curate Your “Aerochrome” Edits (The “Training Data”)

This is the most important step, and Imagen is very clear about it. The AI is only as good as the “teacher.” You are the teacher. Your edits are the textbook.

You need to first create a “training set” of photos. Imagen recommends at least 2,000 consistently edited photos.

So, here’s what you do:

  1. Go through your archives. Find 2,000+ photos that have lots of green and blue skies.
  2. Edit them all, one by one, in Lightroom Classic using the manual techniques we discussed (Channel Mixer, HSL, Tone Curve).
  3. Make them perfect. This is your life’s work. Your “masterpiece” Aerochrome portfolio.
  4. They must be consistent. They must all share the same stylistic DNA.
  5. Put all these edited photos into one (or more) dedicated Lightroom Classic catalogs.

Yes, this is a lot of work. But you only have to do it once. You are building the “brain” of your new AI assistant.

Step 2: Upload to Imagen

This is the easy part.

  1. You open the Imagen desktop app.
  2. You tell it you want to create a new Personal AI Profile.
  3. You point it to the Lightroom Classic catalog(s) that contain your 3,000+ masterpiece edits.
  4. Imagen analyzes the “before” (the original RAW) and the “after” (your final edit) for every single photo. It uploads this editing data (not your photos) to the cloud.

Step 3: Train Your Profile

You click “Start Training.” You go to bed. Or you go on vacation. Imagen‘s cloud computers take all that data and build your unique AI model. This can take a day or two.

When it’s done, Imagen sends you an email. Your Personal AI Profile—let’s call it “My Aerochrome AI”—is ready.

Step 4: Apply Your New Personal AI Profile

This is the magic.

  1. You shoot a new wedding. You have 500 photos with green trees and blue skies.
  2. You upload the new, unedited photos to Imagen.
  3. You select your “My Aerochrome AI” profile.
  4. You click “Edit.”
  5. In minutes (not days), Imagen edits all 500 photos. It analyzes each photo individually and applies your complex Aerochrome logic—the Channel Mixer, the HSL tweaks, the S-curve—dynamically to each one.
  6. You download the edits, and your Lightroom catalog updates. The photos look just like you would have edited them yourself. But it took 10 minutes, not 10 hours.

What if I Don’t Want to Edit 2,000 Photos?

That’s a fair question. Not everyone has that kind of time. Imagen has two other great solutions.

  1. Talent AI Profiles: Imagen partners with industry-leading photographers and builds AI profiles based on their styles. While you might not find a specific “Aerochrome” profile (it’s a very niche look), you can browse them. You might find a profile that has a unique color palette or high contrast that you love. It’s a great way to get started instantly.
  2. Lite Personal AI Profile (The “Hybrid” Method): This is the perfect solution for this problem. It’s a bridge between a static preset and a full AI profile.
    • You take that “My Aerochrome Base” preset we built earlier.
    • You create a new Lite Personal AI Profile in Imagen.
    • You give Imagen that one preset file.
    • Imagen then studies the preset. It builds an AI model that understands the logic of that preset.
    • Now, when you apply this “Lite” profile, it doesn’t just apply the static settings. It applies them intelligently. It will apply the Exposure and White Balance correctly for each photo first, then apply the creative logic of your preset on top.

This is a huge step up from a normal preset. It makes your preset “smarter” and more adaptive.

Why an Imagen Profile is Superior to a Static Preset

Let’s sum it up. This is why I use Imagen for my stylistic work.

FeatureStatic Lightroom PresetImagen Personal AI Profile
How it WorksApplies the exact same saved settings to every photo.Applies a learned style by analyzing each photo.
AdaptabilityNone. Fails in different lighting. Breaks skin tones.Full. Adapts to each photo’s unique light, subject, and color.
ConsistencyInconsistent results. Only looks good on photos identical to the one it was built on.Consistent style. The results look consistent even if the settings are different.
LearningNone. It is static forever.Learns. You can “fine-tune” your profile. As you upload more edits, it learns your new preferences and evolves with you.
WorkflowFast to apply, but creates hours of manual re-edits.Fast to apply. Creates minimal re-edits. Saves hours.

Tips for Shooting Photos for Aerochrome Simulation

You can’t just “fix it in post.” The best simulations start with the best source photos. When I know I want this look, I shoot differently.

  • Hunt for Green: This is obvious. You need foliage. Lots of it. Forests, parks, even a single tree. This is the “fuel” for the magenta fire.
  • Look for Blue Skies: The contrast between a dark cyan sky and a bright red tree is the heart of this look. A boring, white, overcast sky will just be a boring, white, overcast sky.
  • The Role of Lighting: Bright, direct sunlight is your friend. It creates high-contrast scenes and makes the IR-reflection (that we are faking) more “believable.” Overcast light can work, but it’s a softer, more subtle look.
  • Subject Matter: Landscapes are the classic. But try it with portraits! Pose a subject near (but not in) a lot of foliage. You get a beautiful, surreal frame. It’s also great for architecture, making buildings look stark against the “alien” nature.

Common Pitfalls and How to Fix Them

When you are first trying this, you will run into problems. I see it all the time.

  • “My Skin Tones Look Wrong”
    • The Problem: You applied the preset to a portrait, and the person’s skin (which has red tones) turned green or a weird gray.
    • The Fix (Preset): You must use a mask. In Lightroom, use the “Select People” mask, invert it, and apply your preset only to the background.
    • The Fix (Imagen): This is less of a problem if you train your Personal AI Profile correctly. If you feed it 3,000 portraits where you always mask the skin, it will learn to do that. But for most, the fix is to use Imagen‘s AI Tools. Apply your Aerochrome profile, then add Imagen‘s “Subject Mask” and tweak the skin tones back to normal.
  • “My Greens Aren’t Turning Red”
    • The Problem: You applied the preset, and the trees just look like a muddy brown or weird orange.
    • The Fix: Your HSL or Calibration settings are off. The “green” in your photo isn’t the same “green” the preset was built for. Go to the HSL Hue panel. Your “green” is probably in the Yellow or Orange slider. Play with those until you find it.
  • “It Just Looks Muddy”
    • The Problem: The image is flat and boring.
    • The Fix: Contrast. This look needs contrast. Go to the Tone Curve and make a more aggressive S-Curve. This will fix 90% of “muddy” images.

Conclusion: The Future of a Past-Tense Look

The Aerochrome look is a beautiful ghost. It’s a relic from a different time in photography. But its spirit is alive and well.

You can chase it with a simple “Aerochrome Lightroom preset.” You will get a taste of it, but you will also get a lot of frustration. You’ll spend more time fixing the preset than you save.

For me, the professional answer is to think differently. Don’t use a static recipe. Train an AI chef.

By building a Personal AI Profile with Imagen, you are not just simulating Aerochrome. You are creating your own version of it. You are building an intelligent, adaptive style that understands your vision. It’s the speed of a preset, but with the intelligence of a master editor. And in my business, that’s the only workflow that makes sense.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What is an Aerochrome Lightroom preset? An Aerochrome Lightroom preset is a saved set of development settings (like Channel Mixer, HSL, and Tone Curve) that tries to copy the look of Kodak Aerochrome, a discontinued infrared film. It’s a “one-click” way to turn greens into reds/magentas and skies into cyan.

2. Why do my photos look bad with an Aerochrome preset? Probably because the preset is “static.” It applies the same settings to every photo, regardless of the light or subject. A preset built for a sunny forest will look bad on an overcast day or a portrait. The preset doesn’t adapt.

3. What is the most important Lightroom tool for the Aerochrome look? The Channel Mixer (found in the Calibration panel). This is the tool that lets you “swap” the color channels, for example, telling the Red channel to get its information from the Green channel.

4. Can I recreate the Aerochrome look on my phone? Yes, there are apps that have “infrared” filters. These work on the same principles. They are a fun, simple way to get the look, but they offer very little creative control compared to Lightroom or Imagen.

5. Does Imagen have an “Aerochrome” Talent AI Profile? Imagen‘s Talent AI Profiles are from specific, industry-leading photographers. While there may not be one called “Aerochrome” (because it’s a very niche style), you can browse the profiles to find one with a unique color-grading or high-contrast style that you like.

6. What’s the difference between a preset and an Imagen Personal AI Profile? A preset is a static recipe of settings. A Personal AI Profile is a dynamic AI model that has learned your style. A preset applies the same settings to all photos. A profile applies your style to each photo intelligently, adapting to the different light and colors in each shot.

7. Do I need to edit 3,000 photos to use Imagen? To create a full Personal AI Profile that truly knows your style, yes, Imagen recommends at least 3,000 consistently edited photos for training. However, you can also create a Lite Personal AI Profile by “teaching” Imagen with a single preset file, which is a great, fast way to start.

8. Can Imagen fix skin tones in an Aerochrome edit? Imagen‘s core AI profile will edit the skin tones just as you “taught” it to. If you taught it to make skin green, it will make skin green. The best way to handle this in a pro workflow is to apply your Aerochrome Personal AI Profile and then use Imagen‘s separate AI Tools, like Subject Mask, to quickly re-adjust only the skin.

9. What kind of photos work best for an Aerochrome simulation? Photos with a lot of healthy, green foliage (like trees and grass) and a clear blue sky. The look is all about the dramatic contrast between the red/magenta foliage and the dark cyan sky.

10. Is it “cheating” to use an AI like Imagen? As a professional, I say: absolutely not. My clients pay me for a beautiful, consistent final product, delivered on time. Imagen is a tool, just like my camera or Lightroom. It lets me automate the 80% of repetitive work (like applying my style) so I can spend my time on the 20% that matters: the creative, final polish and client relationships. It’s not cheating; it’s just a smarter workflow.

11. Does Imagen work with Photoshop? Imagen is a desktop app that is built to work with Adobe Lightroom Classic catalogs. It also works with photos from Lightroom, Photoshop, and Bridge. Its main function is to send and receive editing data from your catalogs or photo folders, so its primary “partner” is Lightroom Classic.

12. Why do my skin tones turn green with this preset? Because you swapped the red and green channels. Skin has a lot of red tones. When you tell Lightroom “make all red information green,” that’s what it does. This is the main reason you must “mask” (or hide) the effect from people in your photos.

13. What’s the easiest way to start if I’m a beginner? The easiest way is to buy a third-party Aerochrome preset and use the Imagen Lite Personal AI Profile. Upload that preset to Imagen to create a “smart” version of it. This will give you much better, more consistent results than just using the preset alone, as Imagen‘s AI will handle the difficult Exposure and White Balance corrections for each photo.