1960’s era photo look…

EH
Posted By
Earth_Havoc
Apr 24, 2008
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I’ve been trying to find a tutorial of how to make a photo i’ve just taken look like i used a camera from the 1960’s. I’ve tried to get the look through photoshop, but i’m not getting close enough.

if you’ve forgotten the 1960’s photo look, here’s a picture to refresh your memory. <http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/upload/img_400/History—05.jpg>
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J
Jim
Apr 24, 2008
wrote in message
I’ve been trying to find a tutorial of how to make a photo i’ve just taken look like i used a camera from the 1960’s. I’ve tried to get the look through photoshop, but i’m not getting close enough.

if you’ve forgotten the 1960’s photo look, here’s a picture to refresh your memory.
<http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/upload/img_400/History—05.jpg>
I wonder what film they used….
I have some Ektachrome E4 slides which have faded away somewhat like this. My Kodachrome II slides have not faded.
My Kodacolor II negatives still look better that that.

Jim
JP
john_passaneau
Apr 24, 2008
wrote in
news::

I’ve been trying to find a tutorial of how to make a photo I’ve just taken look like I used a camera from the 1960’s. I’ve tried to get the look through Photoshop, but I’m not getting close enough.
If you’ve forgotten the 1960’s photo look, here’s a picture to refresh Your memory.
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/upload/img_400/History—05.jpg

I think that your sample shows a picture that has serious fading problems. One of the problems with color photography has always been instability in the dyes used in the film and paper to make the color. That picture did not look like that when it was taken. As person that was taking pictures in the 60s, I would have thrown away any print that had faded that badly. But if you want to try and get that “look”, I would make a copy layer and put a gradient of the color of the “stain” you would like and adjust the blending to get the effect you like.
I don’t know if this will work, but give it a try. Nice part of a digital dark room you can delete what doesn’t work.

John Passaneau
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Apr 25, 2008
if you’ve forgotten the 1960’s photo look

If you remember the sixties, you weren’t there.

Rob
P
Phosphor
Apr 25, 2008
I remember the 60s. My Dad taught me how to dodge & burn negs, and properly soup a print then. That was the whole basis for what I do now.

The 70s, however, are a different story.

😉
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Apr 25, 2008
70’s? ehm.. What is that?

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1cb2JmsisAvGg3QQ4y cW7mmL7HxTt1>
D
DGWaters
Apr 25, 2008
As John said in post # 1, this is an image that has faded over the years.

Fading affects low-density areas more than high-density areas. It’s like a suntan; the more pigment, the better protection. However, the fading process also slows over time – it’s a "half-life process" like radioactive decay.

The net result is that a linear curve tends to turn into an S-shaped one with lightened high-mids (or increased midtone contrast, if you like) in addition to general highlight blow-out. Furthermore, the four individual inks don’t fade at the same rate. Yellow and magenta inks are much less permanent than cyan inks, this accounts for the color cast.

My background is in art, not design or print, so I couldn’t give you a breakdown on the types of ink used over the years. In this case it seems the yellow and magenta have faded about equally much, but that the left side of the print has been a little more protected from the light.

So go to CMYK first to simulate the inks, then play around with the curves. But I think rather subtle changes are sufficient.
I
ID._Awe
Apr 25, 2008
Quite often it is not that the colors fade as much as the carrier film itself darkens, and that seems to be the case with that photo. Just put a layer of a copper colour over the photo and adjust the transparency to suit.
FN
Fred_Nirque
Apr 26, 2008
Inks?

Photographic prints have no inks. The colours are produced by dyes created during development in direct relation to exposed silver halide grains in three colour sensitive layers which are developed first and bleached out during final bleach/fix to leave just the relevant C, M & Y dyes.

These three colour layers form the image in the end: cyan, magenta and yellow adding together to produce the appearance of natural colour.

These layers fade at different rates over time at a rate that is determined by many factors, including initial manufacture, subsequent processing (type and state of the chemistry), and the display method and atmospheric conditions to which the print has been subject over its life. Add to this the variable but inconsistent rate of yellowing of the base material and you have the recipe for any number of outcomes, from a reddish print through to a light yellow-green (as in the left side of your example – plus a bit of staining) and anything in between.

Take a normal colour photo and using adjustment layers (Layer>Adjustment Layer>Channel Mixer….) make one adjustment layer for each of the Red, Green and Blue Channels. Increase the relevant channel’s output to imitate fading of its complimentary colour – i.e. increase red in the red channel to imitate cyan fading, green for magenta fading and blue for yellow fading – until you get the effect you’re after. Doing it this way will also lighten the picture appropriately to imitate overall fading.

Add a light yellowish brown transparent overlay to mimic the base yellowing and desaturate a bit, and you’ll get close.

In other words, just do the reverse of what you would do to restore a faded print’s colour.

So here’s an imitation of one that’s gone the greenish-yellow route (without any heavy yellow-brown staining):

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1XDtA3jWuKDcOdWGwU AAlWG0Uvt4y1>
D
DGWaters
Apr 26, 2008
Photographic prints have no inks

* hangs head in shame*

English is not my native language, so I get into a mess like this sometimes.

Oh well, I came here to learn, and that*s what I did.
BL
Bob Levine
Apr 26, 2008
English is not my native language

You had me fooled.

Bob
LS
Lee_Stewart
Apr 28, 2008
Besides the obvious fading, I wonder if you can get close to that effect with a general desaturation? It looks like a alot of the colors have shifted towards gray, and that in essence is what desaturation does – but use it sparingly. Do that and add some film grain, and you might be close.

Randy
<http://hawaiiphotostudio.com>
<http://leerandallstewart.com>
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Apr 28, 2008
There’ this tutorial on "Muted Colors" on Lightroom News:

< http://lightroom-news.com/2007/11/23/muted-colours-and-other -fashionable-looks/>

Rob
FN
Fred_Nirque
Apr 28, 2008
Of course there’s also the more usual aging which consists of the disproportionate fading of mainly the cyan and yellow layers, and which most people would identify with the "60’s colour" look:

< http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Njxpeli0OA3XGkxLA KRgxrDg8Ww>

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