Simulating Ortho, and fun with the 'Texas' Handle Flash
Most people who have old photos want to restore and make them new. I however like to take new photos and try to make them look old. A common complaint of people who convert their photos from color to black and white (usually by rudimentary methods) is that they are lack luster and drab. With this photo I tried my best to make my sister-in-law look like her grandmother in her prime (and scantily clad for her day) with my 40's era townhouse neighborhood as a backdrop. I used my alien bee 800 off camera at about her 10:30, with a 50 degree longthrow 'beauty dish' reflector, with no diffusion. Then I tried my best to simulate orthochomatic film with a channel mixer layer at 100% blue 50% green -25% red, monochromed and constant adjusted. I completed the effect by duplicating the background layer adding a diffuse glow, setting it to overlay, and opacity 50%. It is not quite right yet, I could do well to vignette the edges a little, but I think the ortho effect is pretty there. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.
this is the original for reference
this is the original for reference
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I too have a love affair with old film. To that end I bought a couple of old (c) 1916 to 1953 cameras, got some Efke ASA 25 film (google it) and shoot quite a lot this way. I soup the negs in Rodinal ( the oldest commercial developer made)and scan them in. It's not just the film, it's the way the lenses were cut (different curvature) and their low contrast (not coated).
I highly recommend this process. The results are really different from even a great conversion like yours.
eBay search "folding camera" (singular not plural) for really great deals on old cameras, 30-100 bucks.
Cheers
Jules