Basic Black&White Camera

[Deleted member 12480]

nice!!

That is beyond cool.

xx

 

[swinggal]

This, on the other hand, is a formal 30s style shot I set up in a studio with the same lighting as from the era and with retouching. I did a whole calendar this way and used old books on studio lighting. I have more with very dramatic lighting. Will find them later.

 

[swinggal]

I dont think she's trying for the formal 30s formal portrait style. I have done a fair bit of that myself. I think she wants to reproduce the look of old every day photos of the era. Lighting is everything for 30s glamour shots for sure and A LOT of negative retouching was done, but this is what I think Annie is getting at;

Is that what you were looking for? I added a layer of and old photo background, cranked the noise settings a bit, blurred the edges of the photos as a lot of photos were like this in the day with everyday cameras, added a few staines here and there and brought the yellow tones up a little.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

its great! Could you tell me about your studio picture too? I have to have three or four different ideas to show my teacher and thats beautiful.

Xx

 

[swinggal]

The studio pic was for The Perth Girls of Swing calendar that I art directed and designed for 2004. Myself and another photographer friend set up the studio to resemble 30s and 40s style photoshoots.

I have a book that I used to get ideas and which shows how to set up the lighting to recreate 20s, 30s and 40s shots. I will post some of the other pics from the calendar later today. Can't seem to find the disks at the moment.

Once the photos were taken I used masks and layers in Photoshop to get that really smooth skinned effect of the era I have a little technique that I developed that is my little secret We got the lighting right first time, so i didn't have to alter any of that in PS.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

so, what would you recommend as a scaled down gcse coursework version? (obviously i don't have the money for lots of lights and studio time, nor do i have extensive photoshop knowledge like yourself) i just want to create a 'reminiscent' feel without looking tacky or half hearted. Xx

 

[swinggal]

Here are some of the other ones I set up, shot and retouched.

Laura

Paula

Teresa

Ruth

Aminee

 

[swinggal]

This pic however, was done as a test shot the weekend before we used the studio. I just used lamps from home, pointed in the directions I needed and hung a black sheet behind as a backdrop.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

they're beautiful, thankyou for the inspiration. xx

 

[swinggal]

Glad I could help

 

[Jasmine Jolene]

can i just say i love all the photos. it has inspired me to do a little tinkering of my own!

 

[swinggal]

Thanks JJ

 

[Jasmine Jolene]

here's something i knocked together this evening. with a lot of soft focus, sepia tones, you can barely see the pile of laundry in the background lol !

i quite like it anyway - i used Picasa if anyone is interested.

Swinggal - how would i get the marks and old corners like the photo of Annie's that you edited?

 

[kpreed]

We have some VERY great talented folks here, all the photos are well done.:eusa_clap
My first photo class teacher in school recommended the Pentax K-1000 and I still use it and highly recommend it, a great unit and really simple, you can get that " vintage " look buy playing with lens and filters too or you can do like 99% of my clients and covert a digital image to look " vintage " via the computer. I have awards from photos from it to prove how good it is. (All in B&W) Sorry to say they stopped making the K-1000 in 1997, but I see them used and for sale often enough. Good Luck as the world needs more artist.

 

[cptjeff]

If you're interested in getting a true black and white photo look, one thing to keep in mind is that to differentiate colors wildly different in hue but similar in tone, all sorts of color filters were used, so you could wind up seeing a royal blue and a firetruck red as something other then two very similar grays blending together. If you're shooting film, unless you know what you're doing that's going to be hard to replicate. But if you go digital, you can play around with the tone of the various color channels before turning the image grayscale to achieve that same effect.

For a class project, that probably wouldn't matter, but if you're going for a match of what a pro took back then, it's something you need to keep in mind.

 

[swinggal]

Jasmine; I scan old photos that I own and use the edging. I have a collection of different ones with various tears, shapes and sizes. They are masked and layered in in Photoshop and I play with the opacity. Other stains etc...I make myself.

 

[Jasmine Jolene]

If you're interested in getting a true black and white photo look, one thing to keep in mind is that to differentiate colors wildly different in hue but similar in tone, all sorts of color filters were used, so you could wind up seeing a royal blue and a firetruck red as something other then two very similar grays blending together. If you're shooting film, unless you know what you're doing that's going to be hard to replicate. But if you go digital, you can play around with the tone of the various color channels before turning the image grayscale to achieve that same effect.

For a class project, that probably wouldn't matter, but if you're going for a match of what a pro took back then, it's something you need to keep in mind.

on picasa there is a an edit you can use that 'makes it look like a b&w photo taken with a colour filter'. i never really noticed it before, but had always wondered why deep red lipstick looks almost black in vintage photos but just light grey in b&w photos i take! i guess now i know

 

[Jasmine Jolene]

thanks swinggal - i spent hours looking thru some pics of my family from 70-100 years ago with my mum a couple of months ago, but she wouldn't let me keep any.

i must get onto her, she was going to try and get copies of them.