2

I have a four band aerial photography raster. The bands contain Red, Green, Blue, and IR data.

Using GDALInfo we get something like this currently:

Band 1 Block=2933x1 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Undefined
Band 2 Block=2933x1 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Undefined
Band 3 Block=2933x1 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Undefined
Band 4 Block=2933x1 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Undefined

The first three bands can be set to have a colour Interpretation of RGB respectively (GIS' get flaky if they're not set it seems).

But what should the ColorInterp be for the fourth, InfraRed band? Left Undefined? Or is there a setting for IR?

Improve this question
3
  • Did you try "Alpha"? That's what I got for a 4-band TIFF I had handy.
    – blah238
    Mar 4 '13 at 20:55
  • @blah238 Problem there is, I think some applications will assume alpha is what it says (transparency) and I'll get unexpected results.
    – GIS-Jonathan
    Apr 19 '13 at 10:25
  • I'd leave them generally undefined when there is not "the one" representation and then set the RGB bands manually in the Software.
    – pLumo
    Dec 15 '17 at 9:17
1

You can indeed leave the NIR band as Undefined, there is nothing wrong with that.

If you set it to alpha, some software will handle it as a transparency layer.

Note that you may prefer an pseudo-color NIR composite by default instead of the true color image, then you can use "red" for band 4, "green" for band 3 and "blue" for band 2.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.