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jjochems78
Joined: 09 Nov 2009
Posts: 21
Location: Lansing, MI
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 Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 9:50 am Post subject: Creating a silent film look to a modern photo. |
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I've kinda messed with this on and off and want to make a more serious approach to doing it. Seems like the results aren't very good when I rely on photoshop alone. So the other day I took a shot of my girlfriend in an alleyway and took a hunk of glass from a broken tube tv screen and placed it in front of the camera. And made sure the lens was focused on her before i put the glass in place. The glass had alot of white powder chunks on it which created several effects. It made parts of the photo look overexposed and made my focus completely inconsistent. Once I got it in photoshop I blew out the highlights even more. Made it a sepia black and white and gave it alot of grain. End result was alot more closer to the silent film look than I've ever been.
So I guess I want to try and push this a bit further and maybe make a portfolio out of it. So my question is.... What other kinda elements in and outside of photoshop can I do to make this successful? Longer shutter speeds might be one? Should I read a bit on photography history to learn what kind of equipment and lens issues that they were dealing with back in the 1910's and 20's to better conceptualize how I could approach it in photoshop? Anyone know of any good sources of photo material where I can overlay alot of the burned out photo borders and alot of the specks and junk that shows up in the older projectors?
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niftyned
Joined: 07 Mar 2010
Posts: 154
Location: Australia
PS Version: CS4
OS: Windows7
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| Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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Is this the sort of thing you are looking to do? If so it was done in a couple of minutes just with PS, except the burns on the edge they were done with a third party plugin.
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The only limitation is my imagination. |
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jjochems78
Joined: 09 Nov 2009
Posts: 21
Location: Lansing, MI
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| Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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| niftyned wrote: | | Is this the sort of thing you are looking to do? If so it was done in a couple of minutes just with PS, except the burns on the edge they were done with a third party plugin. |
Thats a step in the right direction. I've already played with the film grain plug-in and its helpful but the burned edges I haven't. And I'm curious where you might've gotten that effect from. Here was my the photo I mentioned in my earlier post.[img][/img]
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jjochems78
Joined: 09 Nov 2009
Posts: 21
Location: Lansing, MI
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| Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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Whoopsie my mistake. Shoulda previewed. I gotta downsize the file a wee bit more.
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niftyned
Joined: 07 Mar 2010
Posts: 154
Location: Australia
PS Version: CS4
OS: Windows7
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| Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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The burnt edge effect can be achieved simply by adding a layer under the photo and filling it with black then nibble at the edge of both layers with the eraser tool using a small round brush tip, leaving some black exposed, then apply the blur tool to the edges of the top layer.
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_________________
The only limitation is my imagination. |
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pixel8or
Joined: 31 Oct 2009
Posts: 142
Location: Ireland
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| Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 7:54 am Post subject: |
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Your example in _DSC0477v2.jpg is way too over the top. You need to ease up on the effects with all those white patches. Also your friend needs to be looking at the camera and she needs to be nearer. I can't quite make out but are her eyes closed? Also, there is too much distraction going on in the background. Select a less distracting background if you want the subject to be the main focus of the photograph. Are you looking to create a photograph from the silent era as you first requested or do you just want to apply some effects?
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jjochems78
Joined: 09 Nov 2009
Posts: 21
Location: Lansing, MI
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| Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:27 pm Post subject: |
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| pixel8or wrote: | | Your example in _DSC0477v2.jpg is way too over the top. You need to ease up on the effects with all those white patches. Also your friend needs to be looking at the camera and she needs to be nearer. I can't quite make out but are her eyes closed? Also, there is too much distraction going on in the background. Select a less distracting background if you want the subject to be the main focus of the photograph. Are you looking to create a photograph from the silent era as you first requested or do you just want to apply some effects? |
The photo i posted is much closer to the sort of picture I was looking for. Which is obviously a much more lo-fi kind of effect than traditional silent film era. The sort of feel I'm looking for is more ghostly, I suppose. Leaning more to the "Nosferatu" sort of look but pushing it further. So more of a effect that would elaborate more on the limitations of the technology of old photography. So the blown highlights are usually desirable. The artifacts that occur in ancient projectors. The lack of quality in the lenses.
I'm pretty influenced by artists like Dave McKean. If that gives you any sort of reference. I know that photoshop has a series of built in filters that you can use to "lo-fi" a photograph. But they look pretty digital to me for the most part. So I'd like to find some more third-party effects that would help me if they are out there. Or tips and tactics that might help me get there. If theres a good website maybe that has alot of good stock photos that I can lift some of those photo artifacts from. Like dust specks, stains, worn corners or anything else of that effect.
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Tarboom
Joined: 24 Mar 2010
Posts: 18
Location: Aurora, Ontario
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| Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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| jjochems78 wrote: |
I'm pretty influenced by artists like Dave McKean. If that gives you any sort of reference. I know that photoshop has a series of built in filters that you can use to "lo-fi" a photograph. But they look pretty digital to me for the most part. So I'd like to find some more third-party effects that would help me if they are out there. Or tips and tactics that might help me get there. If theres a good website maybe that has alot of good stock photos that I can lift some of those photo artifacts from. Like dust specks, stains, worn corners or anything else of that effect. |
A few examples of the original image processed with Nik Old Photo filter. I like the look although not exactly sure if this is what you are looking to achieve.
I believe that practically any photo enhancement plug in package would have it's own "old photo" effect, although I only tried Nik's.
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Pavel
Photo Editing | Photo Slide shows | Photo Art | Blog |
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jjochems78
Joined: 09 Nov 2009
Posts: 21
Location: Lansing, MI
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| Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:09 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you very much. That effect looks very useful. I might give that a shot.
| Tarboom wrote: | | jjochems78 wrote: |
I'm pretty influenced by artists like Dave McKean. If that gives you any sort of reference. I know that photoshop has a series of built in filters that you can use to "lo-fi" a photograph. But they look pretty digital to me for the most part. So I'd like to find some more third-party effects that would help me if they are out there. Or tips and tactics that might help me get there. If theres a good website maybe that has alot of good stock photos that I can lift some of those photo artifacts from. Like dust specks, stains, worn corners or anything else of that effect. |
A few examples of the original image processed with Nik Old Photo filter. I like the look although not exactly sure if this is what you are looking to achieve.
I believe that practically any photo enhancement plug in package would have it's own "old photo" effect, although I only tried Nik's. |
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