RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘antique’

Photographer uses ‘antique’ photo technique to illustrate struggles of Native Americans

17 Jun

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_4545210807″,”galleryId”:”4545210807″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });

During the Dakota War of 1862, the United States government hung 38 members of the Dakota Indian Tribe in Mankato, Minnesota – the largest single-day mass execution in US history. A day after Shane Balkowitsch learned about this event – something most Americans have never heard of – he made the plate ‘Death by Oil’ (pictured above) using an antique photo process called wet plate collodion, which was first developed (no pun intended) in 1848.

The oil in the photo links the struggles of Native Americans in 1862 to the present time, in which they are again standing up to the US Government to protect their homeland. In this case, it is from the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.

Wet plate photography requires subjects to sit still for long exposures, sometimes as long as 30 seconds. It involves applying a collodion emulsion onto a glass plate and sensitizing the plate for 3 minutes in a bath of silver nitrate, then taking the photo while the plate is still wet (which requires a portable darkroom). According to Balkowitsch, while the photos come out black and white, ‘they capture real life more beautifully and romantically’ and they will last for hundreds of years, unlike more traditional modern photographic prints. Balkowitsch is one of a very small group of photographers still using the collodion wet plate process and has made over 2300 plates since 2012.

Balkowitsch’s full collection of wet plate photos is available for viewing online.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Photographer uses ‘antique’ photo technique to illustrate struggles of Native Americans

Posted in Uncategorized

 

How to Create an Antique Photo Look Using a Lemon and Layer Masks in Photoshop

17 Mar

Layers were presented for the first time in Adobe Photoshop in version 3.0, which launched in 1994. We take them for granted nowadays, but they were a total game changer at the time as they allowed image composites to be taken to a whole different level with image stacking and transparencies.

Layer Masks may seem like a scary monster for a Photoshop newbie, but they are in fact quite easy to understand as they work the same way as layer transparency. But layer masks use a non-destructive way to reveal or hide portions of a layer by defining pixel opacities without affecting the original data.

It all happens with greyscale data: think of black as transparent, white as opaque and gray as different levels of opacity depending on if they are lighter or darker. Following this theory, this also means that you can convert any greyscale image into a Layer Mask and use it to create many types of effects on your image.

This tutorial is a step-by-step example on how to use this technique.

How to create your own Layer Mask

Create an old school effect

For this particular image, I wanted to create an old-school or antique effect, like an alternative darkroom process of developing a black and white image with a brush. This mask could be done in many different ways, but, because I wanted to make it really textured and as authentic as possible, I used an oxidation process.

Prepare the paper first

To give this process a try, you will need a paper sheet and some lemon juice.

02 How to create your own Layer Masks

Brush the paper with the lemon juice and create you mask area

03 How to create your own Layer Masks

The lemon juice will oxidate upon contact with air, but it will take a long time. To accelerate the process, you can put the paper near a heat source like a tungsten lamp or if you want it even faster, you can use an oven at a low temperature setting like I did here.

04 How to create your own Layer Masks

The lemon juice will start to turn a brown color. Remove the paper from the oven when you get the color and texture you intend, and your paper sheet is ready to be scanned or photographed to create an image file like this:

05 How to create your own Layer Masks

Photoshop technique

Now open Photoshop and the image on which you want to create the mask.

06 How to create your own Layer Masks

Convert the layer to a mask

Now click on the layer mask icon on the bottom of the layers’ palette and your background layer will be converted into Layer 0 with a white mask next to it.

Press the alt/option key on your keyboard and click on the white mask to make it visible and active. This is a very important step! If you miss this step the image itself will be active and visible instead of the mask, that is what you will be working on.

Once you have done this, the image itself will not disappear, it will just be hidden.

07 How to create your own Layer Masks

Convert to greyscale

Now it’s time to open your mask image and convert it to greyscale. One easy way to do it is to use the desaturate function located in: Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (or keyboard shortcut Control/Cmd+Shift+U)

08 How to create your own Layer Masks

The final image you want to create is white around the edges, so your mask should be the opposite. You can use the invert function for this: Image > Adjustments > Invert (Control/Cmd+I)

09 How to create your own Layer Masks

Put the image into the mask

Next, it is time to paste the image into the mask with these simple steps:

  • Select > All (Control/Cmd+A)
  • Edit > Copy (Control/Cmd+C)
  • Now click on the original image where you created the layer mask and go to: Edit > Paste (Control/Cmd+P)
  • Click on the eye icon on the left side of the layers’ palette to see the image and the mask working together.

10 How to create your own Layer Masks

Add a white layer

As you can see the mask creates different levels of transparency on the image. To be able to see the transparency as white we can create a new white layer to use as a background.

  • Go to: Layer > New > Layer (Control/Cmd+Shift+N)
  • Edit > Fill > Contents: White; Mode: Normal; Opacity: 100%

11 How to create your own Layer Masks

Now just drag the new white layer to the bottom position of the layers panel, and you will have a full view of the final image appearance.

12 How to create your own Layer Masks

Fine-tune the effect

Now it is just a matter of a few adjustments to fine-tune the effect you want. In this particular image, I will adjust the size of the mask. Click on the mask icon in the layers’ palette and then click on the chain between the image and the mask icon to unlink them.

13 How to create your own Layer Masks

Next go to: Edit > Transform > Scale (Control/Cmd+T). Drag the image edge lines to transform the shape of the mask and adjust it to the image size.

14 How to create your own Layer Masks

The size of the mask is right, but the image looks to washed out. We can increase the contrast of the mask to make the blending with the image look better.

Go to: Image > Adjustments > Levels (Control/Cmd+L). Adjust the sliders on the levels dialogue box to create the effect you want.

15 How to create your own Layer Masks

Lastly, for the old image look, you can use the black and white function. Click on the image icon in the layers’ palette so that you are editing the image and not the mask, then go to; Image > Adjustments > Black & White (Control/Cmd+Alt+Shift+B). Adjust the sliders on the Black & White dialogue box to create the effect you want.

Note: You can also add the black and white as an adjustment layer to keep your editing non-destructive. Additionally, you can paint on the mask with a black brush, over any areas you want to keep clear (such as her eyes or face). 

16 How to create your own Layer Masks

There it is, a quick and easy way to create your own layer masks. Give it a try and share your images with us in the comments below.

The post How to Create an Antique Photo Look Using a Lemon and Layer Masks in Photoshop by Ivo Guimaraes appeared first on Digital Photography School.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on How to Create an Antique Photo Look Using a Lemon and Layer Masks in Photoshop

Posted in Photography

 

Weekly Photography Challenge – Antique Cars

01 Aug

Old cars – look around you, they’re everywhere.

PoL Úbeda Hervàs

By PoL Úbeda Hervàs

Weekly Photography Challenge – Old Cars

Admit it – photographers love old things. The more battered, torn, peeling, weathered, falling down, beat up, rusted, broken and just in generally poor condition an item is – the more we love to photograph it. Right?! Tell me I’m not alone on that?

So your challenge this week is to go find an old car. It could be ancient and broken down like described above, or overhauled, in pristine condition, and well cared for by a car enthusiast. It’s your choice – or do both.

Thebig429

By thebig429

Craig ONeal

By Craig ONeal

Shoot the entire car (or vehicle) or do some detail shots of important parts. Your call again.

Robert Payne

By Robert Payne

Domiriel

By Domiriel

RSdBarros

By RSdBarros

RSdBarros

By RSdBarros

Darlene Hildebrandt

By Darlene Hildebrandt

Keith Midson

By Keith Midson

Where to find them?

If you can’t seem to find any old cars in your area here are a few places to look. Please remember not to trespass on private land and get permission before entering anyone’s property.

  • Junk yards (ask first)
  • Farmers’ fields (ask if you need to go on the property)
  • Vintage car clubs or car rallies. These are great as you’ll find dozens or hundreds of cars there on display for you to photograph.
  • Historic parks or museums – outdoor ones are especially good. If indoors ask about their photography policy before shooting and you may also need permission if you want to use a tripod.
  • Cuba – you don’t have to travel there (unless you want to) I just thought I’d mention it as the country is FULL of them, and I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my images from that amazing country.
Cuba-Jan14-3043-Edit-2400px

Added some texture overlays using Macphun’s b/w Tonality plugin.

_X2A8150-Google

I loved the detail on the steering wheel on this car.

Cuba-Jan2015-0422-online

You can even hire a driver and a car there for about $ 30/hour. Or just hail any taxi!

Cuba-Jan2015-1514-online

Cuba-Jan2015-1891-98-edit-online

Light painted using the light from a cell phone!

You may find it handy to have a tripod and polarizing filter (to cut reflections) and shoot later in the day if possible to get nice even light on the car. You might want to check out this dPS article as well: The 5 Biggest Mistakes Newbie Car Photographers Make.

Share your images below:

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

googletag.cmd.push(function() {
tablet_slots.push( googletag.defineSlot( “/1005424/_dPSv4_tab-all-article-bottom_(300×250)”, [300, 250], “pb-ad-78623” ).addService( googletag.pubads() ) ); } );

googletag.cmd.push(function() {
mobile_slots.push( googletag.defineSlot( “/1005424/_dPSv4_mob-all-article-bottom_(300×250)”, [300, 250], “pb-ad-78158” ).addService( googletag.pubads() ) ); } );

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Antique Cars by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Weekly Photography Challenge – Antique Cars

Posted in Photography

 

Applying a Texture Overlay to Your Images to Create an Antique Look

19 Apr

If you were to look at my computer you would find a folder called textures, and in that folder you would find hundreds of files. I take photos of things everywhere that I think will be good textures. I also make them, and try different things. You can do the same. Any time you see interesting textures in concrete, marble, or maybe cracked paint, take photos of them, add them to your folder for textures.

There are numerous reasons for adding textures to your photos, and one of the best is to give your work an old or antique look. Lots of old photos have marks on them or the emulsion has stained. Photos were often not treated with preservation in mind and they have started to look textured.

In this article we are going to look at how you can apply a texture overlay to your images to give them an aged look.

1-lily-texture-original

We are going to work on the above image of the lily. It has had basic processing done to it in Adobe Camera Raw before being opened in Photoshop CC (2014).

Cameras and lenses back in the day often didn’t produce super sharp images, so to start off we are going to make a duplicate layer of our image. I do this with the Ctrl+J, keyboard shortcut (Cmd+J on a Mac). There are other ways of doing this, such as; going to the menu at the top and choosing Layer, then clicking on Duplicate Layer, but I find the keyboard shortcut to be the easiest and quickest way.

11-lily-texture-original

10-lily-texture-original

Once you have that duplicate layer then go over to Filters and choose Blur, then Gaussian Blur as in the image above. You don’t want too much blur, or it will look like it is out of focus, and you don’t want too little or it will not be visible or obvious enough. I used 3.8 for the purpose of this image.

Next, you want to try and separate the flower from the background, you can do this with curves. Open a curves adjustment layer and use it to darken the image overall. Then using the Brush tool (which is located on your tool bar in Photoshop) on the layer mask, remove the adjustment from the flower as follows.

12-lily-texture-original

3-lily-texture-original

Click on the Brush tool, then set your foreground colour to black. It is the one with the two little squares at the bottom of the tool bar – the colour on top is the foreground color, the one on the bottom is the background color. Go to the curves layer you created in your layers panel and click on the white square in that layer (that is the mask), then go to your image and start brushing on the flower. You should see the flower getting lighter.

Add a warmer color to your image

Screen Shot 2015-04-13 at 11.52.55 AMNext you are going to change the colour of the highlights. You don’t have to do this, but it is a nice touch and it helps create a warmer feel to the image.

Open another curves adjustment layer. At the top you should see a pull down menu that says RGB, click on that and choose Blue. Go to the curves line and up in the top right corner (the highlights) click on the dot in the corner and pull it down along the side line. Don’t go too far, but you should see the image turning yellow. Remember yellow is the opposite of blue.

4-lily-texture-original

Go back up to the curves window and click on red. You are going to do the same thing, except this time take the dot to the left and across the top. You don’t need to go very far.

Adding the texture overlay

Now it is time to find a texture overlay to put on top of your image. It is always going to be an individual thing and something that you need to work out. Here, I used a texture that I saw on the floor of a building in the city. I liked the cracked look of the floor so I took quite a few photos.

5-lily-texture-original

Open the texture file in Photoshop, then using the move tool (the first one at the top of the tool bar) click on the image and drag it over to the image you want to apply it to. You can copy and paste it as well, or use Place (which will add it as a SmartObject).

If you buy textures, or get free ones off the internet, you will often find they are too small for your image. But don’t worry about it because you are going to be blending it into your image, so it doesn’t really matter.

If you need to change the size of the texture overlay you can do this with the transform tool. You can find the Free Transform tool under the Edit button on the main menu across the top, where you found Layer and Filters. You can also the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+T (Cmd+T on a Mac).  You will see a little grid go up around the texture so you can drag one of the corners to make it bigger, or smaller, depending on the size you require.  Press enter to apply the transform, or you can double click on it, or click on the move tool and press apply.

Blending the texture into your image

You will need to blend the texture so you can see your image underneath. The layer blend mode options are at the top of the layers panel, it is another drop down menu. The default option is set to Normal, so look for that. There are many options, for this tutorial however, we are going to use Soft Light. Once you change it to that blend mode you should be able to see the texture and the image underneath.

You can also change the opacity of the layer if you like as well. I usually change it slightly so the texture isn’t too strong. You can change the opacity in the window next to the options panel. Just make sure your texture layer is highlighted.

6-lily-texture-original

If you go to the bottom of the layers panel you will see a few things across the bottom.  If you click the rectangle one with the round hole in it you will give your layer a mask.  The mask means you can hide some of that layer from your image, like you did with the first curves layer.

Again, get your brush tool, make sure the foreground colour is black and paint over the flower.  You are now making the texture look like it is just on the background.

7-lily-texture-original

Next we are going to apply a texture to the whole image. This time it is one that will make the image look grungy, and dirty. You can find textures that have marks on them that look like smudges and grease. The one in this tutorial was a polished cement wall outside.

Add the texture to the image the same way you did the previous one. Blend it with the Soft Light Blend mode again. See how you feel about how the image looks, and if you decide it is too strong remember that the opacity can help make it less intense.

Adding a tint to your image

8-lily-texture-original

You will need to add a new layer, one that is transparent. At the bottom of the layers panel where you found the layer mask, you should see next to the trash bin a white square with a corner folded over, that is the new layer icon (see below). Click on it.

9-lily-texture-original

Next go to the tool bar and find the Paint Bucket Tool. Then go to the foreground colour and click on it. A popup window should come up and you can choose a colour to give your image a new tone. I would recommend you choose a grey, for this demonstration a mid tone grey with a hint of orange was chosen.

13-lily-texture-original

Now go to your image and click on it. The new empty layer should be filled with the colour you chose, and your whole image should look like a solid colour. Go to the blending mode for the new layer and change it to Colour. Your image should be transformed to monochrome. If you change the opacity of that layer then some of the original colour will come through, but that is up to you.

Here is the final image.

lily-with-textures

There are lots of other things you can do, but that might be best left for another tutorial.

If you prefer to watch this demonstrated you can check out the video below as I walk you through the same steps:

Have you tried using textures before? Do you have any favorite textures or sites for finding them? Please share in the comments below.

googletag.cmd.push(function() {
tablet_slots.push( googletag.defineSlot( “/1005424/_dPSv4_tab-all-article-bottom_(300×250)”, [300, 250], “pb-ad-78623” ).addService( googletag.pubads() ) ); } );

googletag.cmd.push(function() {
mobile_slots.push( googletag.defineSlot( “/1005424/_dPSv4_mob-all-article-bottom_(300×250)”, [300, 250], “pb-ad-78158” ).addService( googletag.pubads() ) ); } );

The post Applying a Texture Overlay to Your Images to Create an Antique Look by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.


Digital Photography School

 
Comments Off on Applying a Texture Overlay to Your Images to Create an Antique Look

Posted in Photography

 

Reader showcase: Using a Sony NEX as a digital back on an antique camera

29 Jun

Our DIY forum isn’t a month old and we’ve already seen it fill with interesting projects. Some solve a problem, while others are pure fun. Decidedly in the latter category, dpreview forum member vkphoto has put a Sony NEX-F3 ‘digital back’ on a vintage ICA Toska camera from the early 1900s and a Carl Zeiss Tessar 135mm 1:6.3. See how he brought new life to an antique with a $ 15 modification. Learn more

related news: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Reader showcase: Using a Sony NEX as a digital back on an antique camera

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Reader showcase: Using a Sony NEX as a digital back on an antique camera

25 Jun

1.jpg

Our DIY forum isn’t a month old and we’ve already seen it fill with interesting projects. Some solve a problem, while others are pure fun. Decidedly in the latter category, dpreview forum member vkphoto has put a Sony NEX-F3 ‘digital back’ on a vintage ICA Toska camera from the early 1900s and a Carl Zeiss Tessar 135mm 1:6.3. See how he brought new life to an antique with a $ 15 modification. Learn more

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Reader showcase: Using a Sony NEX as a digital back on an antique camera

Posted in Uncategorized

 

House of Glass: Cabin Facade from Antique Window Frames

16 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

house glass front facade

On an unusual kind of cross-country road trip, this couple visited garage sales, antique dealers and added these to other roadside finds, all toward the quest of assembling an an eccentric collection of windows for a unique dream home.

house of glass

house glass room interior

Creators Lilah Horwitz and Nick Olson are, respectively, a designer and photographer, but with a common architectural vision of a home where one whole facade would be made of windows. The goal: let sunsets illuminate the structure’s entire interior space, creating a multitude of views, wood-framed through artfully arranged window openings.

house glass night view

The result sits on the sunny hills of West Virginia, a rustic-style cabin in which the front-facing fenestration is the dominant design feature. The assemblage reflects their personalities – the hands-on approach Olson takes with his camera and images, and the landscaping and fashion experience of Horwitz.

house glass hill context

house glass exterior view

In turn, Matt Glass and Jordan Wayne Long interviewed the couple for a short seven-minute film on Half Cut Tea. The result shows the pair of creatives but also the context of their creation via shots of the surrounding landscape and entry path as well as the dwelling itself by daylight and at night.

Share on Facebook



[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


    




WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on House of Glass: Cabin Facade from Antique Window Frames

Posted in Creativity

 

Man breaks own World Record, now owns 4,425 antique cameras

29 Aug

dilish-parekh-collection.jpg

Mumbai-based photo journalist and camera collector Dilish Parekh has been entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for the second time. The previous record holder? Parekh himself. His collection has now grown to 4,425 antique cameras, ranging from Leica to Voigtlander. Learn more about his stockpile of cameras after the link.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Man breaks own World Record, now owns 4,425 antique cameras

Posted in Uncategorized