Trying to get a vintage feel

jonh68jonh68 Registered Users Posts: 2,711 Major grins
edited February 14, 2014 in People
This was another set that stretched me a bit. Michele and I wanted a vintage look so we decided to shoot at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. We didn't have much time to really setup the shots, it was mostly shoot and go. I went for a desaturated look which goes against my normal editing

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Comments

  • EphTwoEightEphTwoEight Registered Users Posts: 552 Major grins
    edited February 13, 2014
    Wow!! Success!!
  • HackboneHackbone Registered Users Posts: 4,027 Major grins
    edited February 13, 2014
    Love the desat look with the fashonable hair do, dress and posing. Lighting seems too bright for my taste. Love the Cosair in the bkg.
    Charles
    www.cameraone.biz
  • jonh68jonh68 Registered Users Posts: 2,711 Major grins
    edited February 13, 2014
    EphTwoEight wrote: »
    Wow!! Success!!

    Thank you!
    www.jonimages.com
  • jonh68jonh68 Registered Users Posts: 2,711 Major grins
    edited February 13, 2014
    Hackbone wrote: »
    Love the desat look with the fashonable hair do, dress and posing. Lighting seems too bright for my taste. Love the Cosair in the bkg.

    Thanks! I went back and forth on the highlights, normally I try not to be that bright. However, playing with the sliders and going brighter put more of a spotlight on her and made a bigger impression on me.
    www.jonimages.com
  • jmphotocraftjmphotocraft Registered Users Posts: 2,987 Major grins
    edited February 13, 2014
    I'm digging these. I think you and Dana Scully there should spend some more time with that Corsair and any other treasures in that hangar and go for some stuff like this:

    http://pavelkosenko.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/4x5-kodachromes/
    -Jack

    An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
  • M38A1M38A1 Registered Users Posts: 1,317 Major grins
    edited February 13, 2014
    What a beautiful set of images you have created.
  • divamumdivamum Registered Users Posts: 9,021 Major grins
    edited February 13, 2014
    Styling, venue and posing - STUNNING!

    I agree the lighting is too bright, or maybe just not quite "Old Hollywood" enough. Can't put my finger on what it is. The backgrounds seem too bright in some cases, maybe? Not sure. I would LOVE to have a crack at processing numbers 2 and 4 if you'd be willing to let me do it (send me a link to a raw file if so). Really fun set thumb.gif
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  • jonh68jonh68 Registered Users Posts: 2,711 Major grins
    edited February 13, 2014
    divamum wrote: »
    Styling, venue and posing - STUNNING!

    I agree the lighting is too bright, or maybe just not quite "Old Hollywood" enough. Can't put my finger on what it is. The backgrounds seem too bright in some cases, maybe? Not sure. I would LOVE to have a crack at processing numbers 2 and 4 if you'd be willing to let me do it (send me a link to a raw file if so). Really fun set thumb.gif

    Thanks, I was trying to go with this style. I couldn't do the shadows as we just didn't have enough time to spend on setting them up. I used my strobe and the spotlights on props at the museum. To my eyes, these samples are a bit bright but I like that for this session.
    http://photofocus.com/2013/10/24/hollywood-portraits-remastered/
    www.jonimages.com
  • divamumdivamum Registered Users Posts: 9,021 Major grins
    edited February 14, 2014
    John very kindly sent me the original .nef files to play with. Fun!! I'm not sure if this was the sort of "vintage" you had in mind, but I decided to go with a kind of film-still / movie poster look from the period. I didn't convert b&w and then colorize - which is often what gave that "rosy" look to those period images - but I had that kind of look in mind.

    #4 was really easy and I love the way it came out - the contrasty lighting (tres film noir), styling, and setting worked without much effort - didn't even have to take it out of LR. Boosted the reds, bumped the saturation up and the vibrance down and added a vignette - that's about it. The conversion was via a (free!) preset I have that emulates Rollei Ortho.

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    #2 was more challenging and took a lot more work - for me, the high contrast/film noir lighting and sultry expression was slightly at odds with the bright "cheery" kitchen. I felt like it should look more like a "soap flakes ad" (all quite bright), but it wouldn't quite work. Again, I was going for that "colorized" feel, although I didn't nail it. Bottom line, for me, I think this shot simply works better in B&W.

    In LR I flattened out the contrast of the original, and brightened it up a bit. Boosted reds and, again, reduced vibrance. Twiddled with the tone curve a bit to pull some more light out of the shadows and darks. Then took it into PS to adjust reds (particularly her lips), run the healing brush and a skin action to give her that "Max Factor pancake" over-perfect skin, brightened/defined her eyes, and then ran a high-pass filter over the whole image. Took it back into LR where I played with it a little more (literally just twiddling things until I liked the way it looked - nothing specific), then took it into Alien Skin exposure where I put a film filter on it. The algorithm in AS is a little different than Adobe, and it can give quite different results; this was an agfachrome filter that came closest to what I was trying achieve.

    In colour, I think it's the contrast/difference between the background and face that still bugs me - I just couldn't even it out quite the way I wanted. Maybe it would have worked better for me if I felt the light came from higher, like it was from an overhead (even though of course it would still have needed fill)? Still not sure. Again, this is more a "concept" difference - what I'm imaginging and what you went for are different things, which is fair enough!! thumb.gif

    i-Mv4tPc6-XL.jpg

    Conversely, I LOVE it in B&W - once you lose the colour, the "moody" lighting - which goes with the expression - works perfectly thumb.gif

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    Thanks for letting me play - that was fun!!!:ivar
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  • jonh68jonh68 Registered Users Posts: 2,711 Major grins
    edited February 14, 2014
    You are welcome and thank you! I like the edits, and thanks for the detailed descriptions. For the second one, we really didn't have a concept in mind. This was a kitchen display we couldn't get into, but I thought it would lend itself to a neat shot, or at least an interesting backdrop. I do like the emphasis on red, especially given her color. Also, I like the added saturation of what looks like the blue channel. To me that goes with the vintage concept in regards to pulp and comic book printing of the time with only using a few colors.
    www.jonimages.com
  • Bryce WilsonBryce Wilson Registered Users Posts: 1,586 Major grins
    edited February 14, 2014
    Nice set. The wardrobe, hair-style and make-up is spot on. I have to agree with the others on the light though, but I do remember you like things a bit hotter flash wise than I do.

    Next time you are at the museum, take the time to walk across the street to the CPO club. It's located right next to the Navy Lodge. On the beach side they have a really long boardwalk type deck that leads to the ocean that I think you and your style of shooting could make good use of. Worse case scenario, if it's after four, you can have a beer!

    Regards...
  • jonh68jonh68 Registered Users Posts: 2,711 Major grins
    edited February 14, 2014
    Bryce Wilson wrote: »
    Nice set. The wardrobe, hair-style and make-up is spot on. I have to agree with the others on the light though, but I do remember you like things a bit hotter flash wise than I do.

    Next time you are at the museum, take the time to walk across the street to the CPO club. It's located right next to the Navy Lodge. On the beach side they have a really long boardwalk type deck that leads to the ocean that I think you and your style of shooting could make good use of. Worse case scenario, if it's after four, you can have a beer!

    Regards...

    I'll have to check it out, I have also done a quick shoot at the lighthouse on the base, but it started raining. And maybe the brightness is too high on my monitor :)
    www.jonimages.com
  • Bryce WilsonBryce Wilson Registered Users Posts: 1,586 Major grins
    edited February 14, 2014
    jonh68 wrote: »
    I'll have to check it out, I have also done a quick shoot at the lighthouse on the base, but it started raining. And maybe the brightness is too high on my monitor :)

    Oh, and while you're at it. Check out the landscape out the back door of the Nave Lodge. They spent a fortune on it and I think it would work GREAT for some of your stuff too.
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