Achieving that vintage look, via PhotoShop

[Darhling]

There isnt one correct formula, it is all about finding what filters look the best for your preference. Play around with pixels to make it look more grainy. over saturize some action shots can look very cool aswell, together with upping other filters. To get that painted pinup style takes (for me) quite a lot of tweaking, but generally think fewer and bolder colors instead of the hundreds that goes into modern photography.

It all depends on what you want: perfect hollywood soft focus head shots or the grainier photos people took themselves or something else entirely.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

Here's my original photo:

Here's the finished result:

This is what I did (using photoshop).

1. Started by duplicating the picture as a layer so as not to destroy the original in case of mistakes.

2.Ever so slightly upped the contrast

3. Desaturated the picture, rather than converting to greyscale.

4. Added a border, which began as a black border with a white middle

5. Invert it to white with a black middle

6. Set the layer to 'screen'.

7. Then I used the paintbrush tool in black and painted out my face and body to remove the 'grain'.

And voila! Would anyone like a pictoral step by step? I can do that after the weekend if you would.

 

[MPicciotto]

Fleur De Guerre nailed it with the key move. Instead of changing to "black and white" use "desaturate". You can also play with the color, hue and saturation settings for certain colors like blues or reds or greens to achieve the soft, almost but not quite black and white like you can see in the movie "The Lost Battalion"

Matt

 

[MPicciotto]

Here is a pic that I desaturated, then used some filters to generate "noise", to pixilate the image slightly and to add lens flare like I was taking the pic towards the sun. It's either that or I used the "old photo" filter in GIMP the editing program I use. I can't remember now how I did this pic.

Matt

 

[J.J. Gittes]

Whipped this up in Photobucket, would love to have photoshop though.

Before:

After:

I did it with a combination of sepia, old photo, film grain and for the hair, fix red eye button. Sharpening the photo 3 times gives all of the textures a muted fuzzy look which I think gives it that vintage flair after adding the Sepia and whatnot.

 

[MPicciotto]

Anybody else here use the open source program "GIMP"? I do out of convenience because it came with my version of Linux.

Matt

 

[J.J. Gittes]

Anybody else here use the open source program "GIMP"? I do out of convenience because it came with my version of Linux.

Matt

I downloaded GIMP yesterday and have been tinkering with it. I'm happy with it since I don't have photoshop. It does the job.

 

[FinalVestige79]

Anybody else here use the open source program "GIMP"? I do out of convenience because it came with my version of Linux.

Matt

I use GIMP a lot it was mandatory for my digital arts and graphics class, its easy to use, has alot of options and free!

 

[Davep]

Here is a nice flickr webgroup of people who share "dust and noise" shots which can be used by those wanting to make period shots. Then you use the "linear burn" tool to melt the two images together

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ttvdust/pool/

Another way to do this is to print a full black picture, and then scratch up the resulting copy on cement. Then scan it, and reverse the image.

Here is another thread to help creating the photo on photo paper look
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=42235

Also those so inclined here is another great tutorial on antiquing an image
http://pshero.com/archives/antique-ace-of-spades

 

[Quigley Brown]

Here's my original photo:

I think this looks vintage to begin with....like an old Kodachrome.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

Can you believe that came straight off the camera like that? It was a funny time of the day or something, the photographer swears he didn't fiddle with them, and I believe him, since he sent them about 10 minutes after he got home from our shoot! lol

 

[Story]

All this photoshopping into vintage backgrounds reminds me of the last scene in Kubrick's version of Stephen King's THE SHINING.
http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/the-shining-photo-386x500.jpg

Real fun could be had by doing the same thing with local establishments.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

All this photoshopping into vintage backgrounds reminds me of the last scene in Kubrick's version of Stephen King's THE SHINING.
http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/the-shining-photo-386x500.jpg

Stanley Kubrick:

"[It was] a photograph taken in 1921 which we found in a picture library. I originally planned to use extras, but it proved impossible to make them look as good as the people in the photograph. So I very carefully photographed Jack, matching the angle and the lighting of the 1921 photograph, and shooting him from different distances too, so that his face would be larger and smaller on the negative. This allowed the choice of an image size which when enlarged would match the grain structure in the original photograph. The photograph of Jack's face was then airbrushed in to the main photograph, and I think the result looked perfect. Every face around Jack is an archetype of the period."


.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

All this photoshopping into vintage backgrounds reminds me of the last scene in Kubrick's version of Stephen King's THE SHINING.
http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/the-shining-photo-386x500.jpg

Real fun could be had by doing the same thing with local establishments.

I had a little fun with that a few years ago.

 

[Story]

I had a little fun with that a few years ago.

Does that mean you've always been the bartender?

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Does that mean you've always been the bartender?

Very clever, and well played.

 

[Chasseur]

Hmm.... thats an original photo (minus Jack or Heminway depending on the photo) and people are wearing both white and black tie to the event...

 

[Quigley Brown]

I had a little fun with that a few years ago.

Two important clues to getting this just right is to 1) get the angle of the camera correct . The photographer was probably up on a ladder. And 2) get the angle of the flash correct. It looks like it came slightly from the right.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Two important clues to getting this just right is to 1) get the angle of the camera correct . The photographer was probably up on a ladder. And 2) get the angle of the flash correct. It looks like it came slightly from the right.

That was probably natural light. There isn't a flash made that cover the entire room.

My attempt above was just a rough two second ordeal done for MySpace to be funny... Or not, as it goes.

 

[Quigley Brown]

That was probably natural light. There isn't a flash made that cover the entire room.

My attempt above was just a rough two second ordeal done for MySpace to be funny... Or not, as it goes.

I know it was.