A subwavelength gold hole/disk array that when coupled with a ground plane induces extraordinary transmission through the hole/disk array and zero back reflection. The hole/disk array functions as a “light funnel” in couling incident radiation into the cavity with about 100% efficiency over a narrow resonant bandwidth, which results in frequency-selective perfect (˜100%) absorption of the incident radiation. Such an optical frequency-selective absorber enables flexible scaling of detector response to any wavelength range by pattern dimensional changes, enabling uncooled frequency selective detection and “color” imaging in the infrared domain. Methods and applications are disclosed.