Does anyone know of any techniques that can be used to achieve a really vintage look in photographs?
Posted by Admin in Digital SLR Photography Tips and Techniques on 10 13th, 2009 | 8 responses
ggds asked:
I’m really into photography that has a vintage style, both pieces like Burne Jones’ le Vampire and the look of snapshots from the 60’s and 70’s… but the digital age kind of ***** sometimes when all your shots come out pristine.. haha. Does anyone know of techniques that I can use to add one or more vintage/ancient styles to my photography?
I’m actually looking at picnick as i type, but I’m sort of looking for something that’s not as effortless.. digital editing is something I’ll turn to ocassionally, but I’m also looking for some techniques that i can use during shooting, with both digital and film (because i’m sort of partial to my 35 mm)
Guide to Digital SLR Photography
I’m really into photography that has a vintage style, both pieces like Burne Jones’ le Vampire and the look of snapshots from the 60’s and 70’s… but the digital age kind of ***** sometimes when all your shots come out pristine.. haha. Does anyone know of techniques that I can use to add one or more vintage/ancient styles to my photography?
I’m actually looking at picnick as i type, but I’m sort of looking for something that’s not as effortless.. digital editing is something I’ll turn to ocassionally, but I’m also looking for some techniques that i can use during shooting, with both digital and film (because i’m sort of partial to my 35 mm)
Guide to Digital SLR Photography
photography techniques
i got a questions like this a few days ago. You can use a digital camera, and edit it later to make it look vintage. I wouldn’t worry about using a film camera, unless i had one already.
you should take a photo of something which looks vintage like. What looks vintage like? it all depends on what you want to photograph, You can photograph a person, a building, a construction site, and anything in general, the picture itself isn’t all to important, the importance lies with the editing in the picture.
when i edit pictures i use primarily photoshop ( lightroom ) or something more convenient and free like you have a flickr.com account right? you can also edit pictures on picnil from myspace, and other popular imaging sites.
now, in those days, vignetting was quite popular in the photos, and you can still create this effect. Just go into the effects page, and hit the vignetting button, and you’ll get that really nice effect, also, with you can make an image black and white, use selective coloring, and much more
if you have any more questions
email me, i’d love to help.
photography techniques
use photoshop to modify your pictures.
Guide to Digital SLR Photography
instead of using flat lighting make it dramatic .Your props should be real.Your tones help to create the effect of vintage.Its a stage and the subjects are roll playing make it come to life good luck
photography techniques
First of all, make sure that the objects in your photo are not modern in nature. It should be as timeless as possible, or illustrating objects from the intended era.
Finally, use a photo editing software package like Photoshop that will allow you to introduce effects that will give you the look you want.. Here is an example of one way to do what you want:
photography techniques
I’m glad you’re not totally buying into the digital hype and you’re actually using a film camera. I’ve actually taken pictures with my 35mm film cameras and with 120 film that completely blew away my 8 megapixel digital camera. Especially landscape photos.
It’s not that digital is more “pristine” …the reason film has kind of a different look to it is that film has more latitude. It can pick up better mid-tones and so photos taken with film have a “warmer” tone. Digital camers tend to be very unforgiving with exposure and contrast…you either get dark areas, or super bright overexposed areas with washed out colors and blown highlights. Some people interpret super high contrast digital pictures as looking better or more pristine, but to me they look too fake and sterile. And it really looks horrible when they over-edit pictures and manipulate them so much that they don’t even look real anymore. A lot of people post pictures here with WAY too much Photshopping. They spend more time in front of the computer than taking pictures.
The first thing to do if you want to do to get a sort of “vintage” look to your pictures is choose the right subject. Like Photo Tricks and Tips said, try to choose subjects that are “timeless.” If possible, avoid getting modern cars and buildings in your pictures. Go to a historic part of your city and try to get old buildings in your pictures, and landscape photos where there isn’t anything that dates the picture. If you take pictures of people, maybe they could wear something that isn’t instantly recognizable as being modern. (Jeans work great!) I love shooting in real black and white film because I can take landscape pictures and they look so timeless and ambiguous….they look like they could have been taken yesterday or maybe 50 years ago. If you do decide you want to try black and white film, I’d recommend Kodak Plus-X. It’s very forgiving with exposure, and it gives really nice warm tones. You’ll get awesome pictures that will really draw you in.
For color pictures, I’d recommend Kodak Gold 200 or Fuji 100. Kodak Ultra Color 100 is great too. All those films will give you really nice warm colors that might give you the “vintage” look that you want. Another thing you could do is try a warming filter on your lens, like maybe an orange filter. Or even just a sheet of translucent orange plastic (if it’s not too dark). That will give kind of a Kodachrome look to your pictures, which is probably what you’re trying to do.
If you really want to try using an image editing program, then one thing you might try is scanning your picture (if you used a film camera) and then turn down the color saturation and turn UP the color temperature. This will fade the colors somewhat on the picture, but give a warmer tone. The colors will be slightly faded, but will have kind of an orange tint, which might look like the faded pictures from the 60s-70s.
Really though, another reason why a lot of those pictures look that way is because the pictures have faded over time. Probably because the lab didn’t wash the prints well enough and the fixer used in the developing process slowly started to degrade the print…or the picture wasn’t stored properly in an acid-free album.
Good luck and have fun!
EDIT: I also do develop all my own B&W film and prints at home. In fact, I just developed a set of prints in my darkroom last night. Photos I took with a Zeiss Ikon Nettar and Kodak Plus-X film
I was BORN in 1977, so I wouldn’t know about the color \ b&w tv debate. All I’ve ever known is color cable tv. So it’s not like I’m some old guy that’s anti-technology or longing for the past. I really do like taking pictures with film cameras more than digital because film has a certain look to it and you CAN pick up more detail with properly exposed film. Also, it’s a lot more challenging and rewarding. I use my digital camera for quick snapshots whem I’m hanging out with my friends. Otherwise, I use mostly film.
I went from digital BACK to film.
photography techniques
If you’re really more into 35mm, then you need to play with your lighting, settings, and maybe some filters. ***** on filters are relatively inexpensive, and you can achieve many MANY different looks with them.
A big difference is made in the darkroom as well, the way the prints are processed, but without doing the work in the darkroom yourself, this may not be a viable option.
I find the easiest way is with photoshop of course, using actions mostly, so that it’s quick and easy.
I use my digitals now more than my 35mm cameras, but with a little bit of work in Photoshop, I can get my photos to look however I really want them to.
Digital SLR Photography Guide Official Site
photography techniques
There are several ways that this can be done If you like a vintage look you can make the photo black and white, sepia or cyanotone, some digital cameras can do this in the camera .These same effects can be added in photoshop along with a host of others, such as adding grain or desaturating and texturing the photo to make it look old. There are now photshop add on that can emulate many old film types, even the polaroid look,. You can also do it with film and darkroom techniques to get black and white, sepia or some neat looks like cross processing. You can use filters like the cokin “tobacco” colored filters. Even printing them on fiber based papers can increase the vintage look for some photos.
One really neat way to get a vintage looking picture is to take it through the viewfinder of an old camera (usually twin lens reflex or similar). They call this TtV photography. This is a fun way to shoot that gets really interesting results
Here are a couple of good articles on it
This I understand can be emulated in photoshop and there is a flickr group on it …
Just as an example of how you can change the look these were all done in just a few moments from the same raw photo. don’t take them as finished work but they are quick examples/ The first is not very vintage looking then it goes a bit further on the next two
I love hearing the digital vs film debates. I would bet there were similar debates when color film first came out that the black and white was true photography or black and white that was hand colored not that color stuff. . I started with film in the 70s and only went digital a couple of years ago. I started with a Nikon FM and from there had an FA , F2 and F3. Now I still have those but I also have a D-40 and a D-300. There are advantages to both. As sensor quality and size improve Digital qualtiy can rival that of film. So for me its a matter of preference. Which fits your style and which do you like better. Those that complain that you spend more time on photoshop than you do shooting probably never spent much time in a darkroom making prints and developing film. If they did they would know that time in digital darkroom ( i.e.photoshop ) is not too different from time in a film/paper/chemical darkroom. Just the process is different. If you want someone else to do the processing for you you can send your film to a lab and pick up the prints. Guess what there are also services now where you can upload your digital images, they will do the digital darkroom work and send you back prints or an electronic format of the “finished” work. If you want total control you do it yourself. So find what you like and enjoy it weather it is film or digital
gatewaysc’s comments on choosing timeless subjects is right on the mark. I would recommend following his/her advice on subject and setting. Whether you go digital or film subejct selection, composition and getting the technical aspects right in the camera rather than trying to fix them in a darkroom or on a computer are more important to the final product