Getting the vintage look first attempt, tips please..

J

JDyer

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85
Name
John
Edit My Images
Yes
Was away on holiday last week. After looking throught the best of my pictures i thought that some would look good as older style pictures. This is something i have never done before so thought i would have a go.

Using Elements 10

  • Turned picture into greyscale then played with the brightness and contrast.
  • Added noise at 16%
  • Added a sepia tint
  • Finally a scanned a piece of folded / scrunched paper and put on as additional layer at a high opacitity to try and get a worn effect.

As a firt attenmpt i am relatively pleased. Any additioal tips to help me improve?

1.

Phototshop aged picture - Lyme regis harbour buliding by Jdyer001, on Flickr

1a.

Lyme Regis #4 by Jdyer001, on Flickr

2.

Phototshop aged picture - Seaton Electric Tramway by Jdyer001, on Flickr

2a.

Seaton Electric Tramway #4 by Jdyer001, on Flickr

3.

Phototshop aged picture - Steam engine Sidmouth by Jdyer001, on Flickr

3a.

Sidmouth #2 by Jdyer001, on Flickr

Thanks

John
 
They look pretty good to me, good job. I don't know how effective this would be but may be worth trying, use a colour coated paper (Like plain wrapping paper) for your scan and put some rough and ready tears in it as well as scrunching. If the paper is light brown/dark buff colour then there should be a white contrasting edge to the tears from the white paper base layer underneath. It may add to the creased damaged effect on vintage photos.

Of course a complete Photoshop wiz (not me I hasten to add) will probably show you a quick in-software way of achieving the same effect without messing with paper and scanners (hopefully because I'd be interested too :help:)
 
they are nice first attempts! i'd say that on number 2 id mess with the layers opacity some more as it just seems like an overlay. really like number 3 though
 
Try a demo version of Alien Skin Exposure 4. Does this perfectly and effortlessly.
 
Thats actually a pretty nice job. I love the paper idea. Don't bother with Alien Skin, or any off the other tools/actions/presets there are out there. Just develop your own, far more unique to you
 
I disagree Hugh, I find the uniqueness to be in the photograph and not the processing when it comes to vintage looks. If you're looking for realism, consistency and speed in your workflow then Alien skin is great. There's also enough variation within the program to allow for developing your own unique look.

Here's your image rendered with ASE4. Its not a preset and it took me around 2mins to do. Might not be to the OP tastes but he could easily make it so.

717617940191fe514f8bo.jpg
 
Last edited:
decigallen said:
I disagree Hugh, I find the uniqueness to be in the photograph and not the processing when it comes to vintage looks. If you're looking for realism, consistency and speed in your workflow then Alien skin is great. There's also enough variation within the program to allow for developing your own unique look.

Here's your image rendered with ASE4. Its not a preset and it took me around 2mins to do. Might not be to the OP tastes but he could easily make it so.
Click to expand...

We are in the PP section though which kind of assumes we're just talking about PP and not what your style of photography itself adds. Look at the number of folks using ASE, TRA etc. they don't really produce a unique result and the op has produced something thats better (IMHO) then ASE manages
 
That's cool. I still disagree. The slapdash edit I did above may be described as less unique because I used ASE4 but to me it looks a bit more authentic. If ASE4 was a set of unalterable presets then I would agree but its a highly customizable and adaptable program. A good edit in ASE will be as authentic as a good edit in PS.

To critique the OP; The paper effect in the edits looks very obviously fake to me. Crumpled paper doesn't fit as a texture as the image itself is unaffected by the crumple. The Edges are also too sharp for an authentic old photograph style. The colour and contrast is good though.(y)
 
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