Hi, I've been looking for awhile a tutorial which can help me to create a vintage effect on my photographs and make them look like the ones that used to appear on the magazines of the 1960s and 1970s like LIFE or National Geographic, but I couldn't find anything that works. I was wondering if you know how can I add this effect on my photographs or which tools I should use to generate that effect. Here are some examples of what I want to recreate:
Hope you can help me!
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Normally we are presented with an image that has been modified in Photoshop and are asked which of Photoshop’s tools and techniques could replicate the effect.
In the case of your printed image, we would be helped greatly if we were aware of its non-Photoshop production steps so that we could attempt to imitate their effect in Photoshop.
The image was printed and modified using a method that probably originated as a color separated image destined for a letterpress photoengraving from which an electroplate was made and subsequently used on press.
The printed picture was scanned or photographed by you in such a manner that the halftone dot pattern was lost, detail was compromised and the blur that lost the halftone dots also softened the entire image.
In order to see how the original indirect* separations were handled I changed the Photoshop version Mode to CMYK where an accurate black plate record somehow made the trip. The Black record reveals much about the separations.
*Indirect separations differ from direct separations in that, after appropriate masks are made, direct separations are filtered and screened in one step. Indirect separations require two steps:
1: Filters with Continuous Tone Pan film to produce four black and white negatives.
2: The resultant films are then screened with High Contrast Ortho film allowing for further intentional modification of the film record. This is followed by dot etching for more correction.
The K channel record confirmed a lot, namely that the separation aim points, curve shapes, masking criteria and controls were far different 50 or 60 years ago. (Side note: The emulsions may have been on glass. Dimensionally stable film bases were introduced around 1960. Depending on your age the stable base terms Estar, Plestar, and Cronar may be familiar to you.)
Look at the difference between K plates: Old method and current generic Photoshop CMYK. Notice how the K of the old method extends into the flesh tones and even the little girl’s white shirt. The shadows are a hammered solid. Ugh.
NOTE: The super-strong K plate served two purposes: Gray Component Replacement (where the CMY create gray, is removed via masking and replaced with K) for more consistent color rendition on press, and UCR -- Under Color Removal -- (involved replacement of the CMY (that created dark blacks) with K for the sake of economy. Ink is an important line item on a cost sheet. Ink colors (CMY) cost more than Black and on long runs, such as publications, it can be significant.)
Bottom line: in an effort to replicate the effect pictured, changes must be made so that the K channel is closer in local and total contrast to your sample -- which is worlds away from the arbitrary profile of Photoshop’s CMYK and then alter the Curves of the C, M and Y to accommodate it.
In Photoshop it will require changing the generic Black Generation field from the default of Medium to Maximum and building on that, with a duplicate layer of the Black set to Multiply, for starters.
Black Generation can be found in Edit > Color Settings > CMYK > Custom CMYK. Be sure to return any change to your normal setting when you are no longer working on this file.
P.S. When discussing color separations and print quality, Life Magazine and National Geographic should never be uttered in the same breath.
Much as I enjoy Norman's detailed and historically correct rundown, I'm very tempted to just put it like this: make it look like s**t and you're good to go. Let's face it, digital beats analog hands down 😉
Let's start with this:
First compress the tonal range down to the typical five-stop dynamic range of a color transparency. Then blur it a bit. Film didn't have the resolution of a digital sensor and modern lenses. Finish off with a reddish color cast in the shadows:
Looks straight out of a magazine, ca. 1974 😉
Here's how you limit the tonal range, while leaving the midrange unaffected:
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I had the same conundrum recently for a work project and came across a really effective simulation of this effect. I've also noticed (from poring over old ads and reproductions of those ads in books and online) that the degraded effect you're seeing in these reproductions is also a process of photographing / scanning / reprinting the ad. The original prints aren't quite that noisy and distressed, for what it' worth.
But I found a few risograph templates that gave a somewhat convincing effect - this one in particular came in handy, with some modifications. I disabled any halftone effects and used a film grain effect. As @D Fosse explained, the trick is to deepen the shadows and overall contrast and then bring up the value of the shadows; then add film grain over a very subtle gaussian blur, and push the oranges / reds, especially in skin tones.
I quickly mocked up this scene in Blender from a page I found in a compendium of 60's ads:
and then processed it with these filters:
to get this:
The "filter gallery" filters (going upward) on the lower layer are Dry Brush and Cutout, respectively. The camera raw filter is where a lot of the color grading and noise happens. The top layer is an overlay layer at around 35% opacity, with a film grain and about 1px blur applied.
I understand that in some circles it's downright heresy to call this effect attractive, let alone pursue it, but if you find yourself in a situation where you actually need to recreate the effect, some of these risograph templates come pretty close. I'm mostly just posting this in this thread for posterity, since I know someone else will have the same question and come across this thread eventually.
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