Vintage effects on photographs (heavy photoshopping)

[Jian Bastille]

First off, why did I post this in Art, rather than Photography?

Because photography is all about capturing the image you want on the negative/card the first time around, with limited (darkroom/darkroom-esque) tweaks to enhance what you want the photo to be. An example would be cropping, sepia-toning, contrast enhancing, dodge & burn/masking.

Otherwise, you do too much, it's no longer a photograph, it's a Graphic.

...and a Graphic cam very much be a piece of art.

I was originally going to make a how-to on vintage effects, but that might give too many self-labored secrets away, and unlikely to inspire new techniques from readers. I decided to present this as I learned myself: a few pointers, and finished examples, whereas you like something about the finished piece, you try to figure out how i did it, and somewhere along the way you not only could learn something new, but find something entirely different you like better!

I learn, you learn, we all learn from examples, and one should never stop being a student of new techniques and art!

Here's some points to remember :

* There is no 'one way' to get a vintage effect.

* Get your contrasting balanced to match all of your layers, so it looks like one piece, as opposed to a 'vertical collage.'

* Pay attention to grains, patterns, textures of the base layer, and top layer of your graphic. It'll make a HUGE difference, be your final image large or small, but extremely important in hi-res.

* Get friendly with Google Image search, and concentrate on terms that narrow down what you're looking for. Also, explore the 'Extra Large' image option before anything else, and, if nothing within 10 pages looks good to you, go for 'Large' image option. Anything smaller won't yield you much good in photoshop. Bigger is better. Construct large, output smaller.

* We all know how to sepia-tone. But do you know how real color images fade? On paper? Film? Newsprint? Wood? Gloss? Research from vintage postcards, posters, matchbooks, anything... look, pay attention, learn, experiment in photoshop on how you can make it look authentic. Again, somewhere between start and finish, you might discover something new!

* Fonts. You can find free fonts anywhere. Here's a start : http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/old-fashioned-fonts.htm

* Have fun, because if you're not, you should be doing something else.

Here's some examples from a candid shoot I did, just fooling around, no set, no plan, nothing, with resident Pin-Up 'NolaChick.' I was bored today, and pounded these three photos into retro graphics, all within two hours.

(thumbnails link to large images, even the larger images are shrunk from the originals)

[Delyssia LaBelle {Madam}]

your pics of nola are amazing!

[Jian Bastille]

Delyssia LaBelle said:

your pics of nola are amazing!

-


Thanks! As a testament of how good of a model she is, these weren't planned shots. We had a few cocktails, and, since I bring my camera nearly everywhere, I popped a few completely candidly; she saw the camera, and sprang into posing. Seriously, on-the-fly fun shots you'd take in a bar, like any of us on a night out.
Except she's execptional ;)

Where is NolaChick when I'm praising her, anyway? Get in here!

[Edson Carlos]

What a fantastic thread Jian Do you think we should slowly post some very basic how too's? Tons are readilly available online, perhaps find the ones that would apply to the "style" we like to achieve and post them here?

[Miss Heather Z]

Amen, I hate when people photoshop the hell out of a picture & want to call it "photography".

[NolaChick™ {Madam}]

Aw, thank you, Jian! =) I think you're pretty awesome, too!

Jian Bastille said:

Delyssia LaBelle said:

your pics of nola are amazing!

-


Thanks! As a testament of how good of a model she is, these weren't planned shots. We had a few cocktails, and, since I bring my camera nearly everywhere, I popped a few completely candidly; she saw the camera, and sprang into posing. Seriously, on-the-fly fun shots you'd take in a bar, like any of us on a night out.
Except she's execptional ;)

Where is NolaChick when I'm praising her, anyway? Get in here!

[Jian Bastille]

Heather Zombie said:

Amen, I hate when people photoshop the hell out of a picture & want to call it "photography".

First off, it becomes painfully obvious to anyone who knows their trade. Secondly, I realize everyone didn't do a decade or more with manual (even auto SLR) 35mm cameras, to know you way around a digital fluidly, but a lot of people use photoshop as a substitute for camera skill. It doesn't happen overnight, and you can't force it, it just doesn't work that way.

What they don't realize, is that people who do that, do not have the enough skill to realize their 'photos' look like badly photoshopped bad photos. They're only fooling themselves that they're fooling others.

Daddy Cool said:

What a fantastic thread Jian Do you think we should slowly post some very basic how too's? Tons are readilly available online, perhaps find the ones that would apply to the "style" we like to achieve and post them here?

Well, some general tips :
First off, if you lack research materials, fine-tune what you're looking for verbally, and Google Image Search it, preferably large images.

Pay attention to the way certain printed mediums fade over the years, water damage, sun damage, etc. Take note, side-by-side compare them when playing with it.

Mimic by experimenting with R,G, and B color levels, it's best to do so with multiple layers of the image, in different Alpha values and layer effects/filters to get the most dramatic but appropriate effect.

Find naturally degrading/distressed paper materials, study its defect, even scan it, to play around.

Find (or scan) dust, scratches, wear and tear, and remember : you can always fake it by hand with black ink on white paper, scan it, and invert the image so you gain a black background with white 'imperfections.' Play around with this in your top layer.

Finally, get cues from vintage ads, magazines, newspapers, and posters : Fonts, arrangement, placement, layout, get the feel of the 'cutting edge' of avdertising of the day, and have a ball!

If I have the time soon, I'll walk you through a simple image taking shape, if not, experiment with the techniques I've outlined, and explore! Never stop learning! I learn something new every time I do one of these!

NolaChick said:

Aw, thank you, Jian! =) I think you're pretty awesome, too!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'll take this a step further. There are photos of her that I find good, others great, some increible. Still, she actually is much more engaging and radiant in person. It's my job to bring that out when her and I formally shoot, and I won't be satisfied until I see the NolaChick I know in person satisfactorily represented in my eventual photos of her!

[Kawentzmann]

Today this came across my path and it nicely adds to this great tutorial. It’s a video, mostly elaborating on the old style colors and vintage textures.

[Joe Piervincenti]

Hi. This looks like a fun place to begin meeting people on this site. I'm new and I'd like to say a great big hello and nice to be here greetngs! :)
...Joe...

[Elizabeth ZAMH]

Reply by Kawentzmann on October 25, 2008 at 2:28pm
Today this came across my path and it nicely adds to this great tutorial. It’s a video, mostly elaborating on the old style colors and vintage textures.

That was a good video. I've always used a combination of "smart blur" & "Grain".
Here's a couple I did for a friend to send out this christmas...they could be alot better if I invested a little more time. But she liked that cheesy effect.