# 1960's treatment



## Fiendish Astronaut (Feb 23, 2008)

Hi all,

What tips does anybody have for giving a digital image a 60's feel? I'm doing the stills for a shoot next week and they need to be provided digitally. It's a short film about a Soviet cosmonaut preparing for launch in the early 1960's and I've been asked to make some of the shots look like genuine 60's products. It's for a digital press kit so the shots need to be digital anyway, plus I don't want ALL the shots to have this feel so it probably needs to be something I can do in Photoshop with RAW files. 

Here's something from the filming brief:

"The film should look almost 60's. There should be a very authentic feel to the whole piece. This will be achieved with a combination of set design and costuming and also in the grade. The film should have a very grainy look and a strange grade to match the references."

I've got some ideas and tried this sort of thing before, but have never nailed a definite technique for doing it. I'll be supplying this before I see the film so going to be tricky to match it! But I can at least provide something that looks like 60's photography.


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## Socrates (Feb 23, 2008)

Fiendish Astronaut said:


> Hi all,
> 
> What tips does anybody have for giving a digital image a 60's feel? I'm doing the stills for a shoot next week and they need to be provided digitally. It's a short film about a Soviet cosmonaut preparing for launch in the early 1960's and I've been asked to make some of the shots look like genuine 60's products. It's for a digital press kit so the shots need to be digital anyway, plus I don't want ALL the shots to have this feel so it probably needs to be something I can do in Photoshop with RAW files.
> 
> ...



Tr-X film is still available.  Why not shoot on film and and get a Kodak CD?  Alternately, get the shots printed and scan them yourself.


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## Fiendish Astronaut (Feb 23, 2008)

Thanks Socrates. I'm currently considering shottng with old film - but if I do go with digital - which I will be using for at least some of this I need to work out what I can do. I'm sure it only needs to a couple of subtle tweaks rather than a massive re-working of the style of every shot.


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## JerryPH (Feb 23, 2008)

First, RAW is a good way to shoot, but what I did for that old postcard look of the 60's was go black and white (obviously), strong contrast and lots of vignetting.

In this pic, as an example, I wanted the look of a vintage 50s-60s snapshot of somewhere in Miami or similar to that.

Note the small hints of motion hidden under the vignette a little with the bottom right side seagull in low flight and the people on the far left... but the "hotels" clear. One could have taken the shot at higher ISO for a grainer look and feel... further adding age to the picture.

Quite retro in term of how it "feels".







In your case, it seems to assume FILM which is NOT digital pictures. Add lots of noise, DEFINATLEY all black and white and make sure the sound is tinny... meaning in the audio, remove al LOT of the bass and treble for that old fashioned sound that old microphones used to have... but thats not relative to a photo forum... lol


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## Socrates (Feb 23, 2008)

Fiendish Astronaut said:


> Thanks Socrates. I'm currently considering shottng with old film - but if I do go with digital - which I will be using for at least some of this I need to work out what I can do. I'm sure it only needs to a couple of subtle tweaks rather than a massive re-working of the style of every shot.



You're right.  It shouldn't be massive.  I recently scanned some old family photos, including my grandmother's wedding photo from 1905.  I was pleasantly surprised at the quality.


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## Socrates (Feb 23, 2008)

JerryPH said:


> First, RAW is a good way to shoot, but what I did for that old postcard look of the 60's was go black and white (obviously)...



Hey, wait a minute!  We had color postcards in the sixties.  We even had talkie movies.


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## Socrates (Feb 23, 2008)

Fiendish Astronaut said:


> Hi all,
> 
> What tips does anybody have for giving a digital image a 60's feel? I'm doing the stills for a shoot next week and they need to be provided digitally. It's a short film about a Soviet cosmonaut preparing for launch in the early 1960's and I've been asked to make some of the shots look like genuine 60's products. It's for a digital press kit so the shots need to be digital anyway, plus I don't want ALL the shots to have this feel so it probably needs to be something I can do in Photoshop with RAW files.
> 
> ...



I just thought of something that might interest you.  I have some prints from the late sixties, July 1969 to be at tad more precise.  My camera was on a tripod aimed at the television screen.  I took several dozen shots of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin exploring the moon.  I could scan them and get them to you.  Naturally, I'd want credit for the shots.


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## JerryPH (Feb 23, 2008)

Socrates said:


> Hey, wait a minute! We had color postcards in the sixties. We even had talkie movies.


 
I know... I was old enough to be around then.. lol  But he wants a vintage look and that almost demands B&W.


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## JerryPH (Feb 23, 2008)

Socrates said:


> Naturally, I'd want credit for the shots.


 
That should by all rights be yours already... but if you have concerns, take the time to watermark your pics and register them BEFORE handing them out to the public.


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## Socrates (Feb 23, 2008)

JerryPH said:


> That should by all rights be yours already... but if you have concerns, take the time to watermark your pics and register them BEFORE handing them out to the public.



I'm pretty much a trusting soul and I really don't have concerns but thanks for your suggestion.


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## Rachelsne (Feb 23, 2008)

Have you ever seen the old post cards which have all the same colour reds , same colour blues etc like this image I found when I googled 1960s colour postcards:




I like how these look.


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## Fiendish Astronaut (Feb 23, 2008)

Socrates said:


> I just thought of something that might interest you.  I have some prints from the late sixties, July 1969 to be at tad more precise.  My camera was on a tripod aimed at the television screen.  I took several dozen shots of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin exploring the moon.  I could scan them and get them to you.  Naturally, I'd want credit for the shots.



HAHA! 

Black and white is a good idea, but these are meant to be stills for an electronic press pack for a film which will be in colour so I think they should probably look similar; could provide b&w alternatives - I think I can be as creative as I want as it will be interesting to provide something really striking in it's authenticity.

Rachel, I can't see that image but this is a typical 1960's comsonaut photo... http://www.vibrationdata.com/Resources/Yuj0701.jpg

and a nice rocket: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Titan2.jpg

I'm like an excited child! _I_ want to go to into space!!!


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## Digital Matt (Feb 23, 2008)

When I think 60s, I think kodachrome, not necessarily b&w. 

http://www.creativepro.com/printerfriendly/story/23201.html


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## Happy Hour (Feb 23, 2008)

You might not believe it, but Picasa has some great options in it for this. I just use sepia or B&W add some grain and play with shadows and highlights ans in seconds you have a great vintage looking picture. You might want to give it a try. It wouldn't hurt.


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## Happy Hour (Feb 23, 2008)

">

"> 
I know this is a older look than you want but just as a example it took me a minute to do this


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## Rachelsne (Feb 23, 2008)

Fiendish Astronaut said:


> and a nice rocket: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Titan2.jpg
> 
> I'm like an excited child! _I_ want to go to into space!!!



Hence your name maybe lol

Thats a good link digital Matt thats what I was trying to find, but didnt know the correct name


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## Fiendish Astronaut (Feb 23, 2008)

Thanks for the tips everybody. I'll have a look at Picasa - if anyone has got some good result using photoshop (like using layers and playing with colour and contrast etc) do say!


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## bhop (Feb 23, 2008)

Digital Matt said:


> When I think 60s, I think kodachrome, not necessarily b&w.
> 
> http://www.creativepro.com/printerfriendly/story/23201.html



Same here.  

I think you might be trying to hard.. just mess with your saturation and tones and you should be ok.


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## Jimbo60 (Feb 23, 2008)

Most folks in the '60s got their news coverage either in the newspaper or on the 6 o'clock news. Either way if I remember correctly it was always grainy and, a little underexposed, B&W or color.

Ads, if in color always had that funky over-saturated, surreal color pallette thing going on. With the typical Kodachrome color cast.


JMHO


............ Jim


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## ~Stella~ (Feb 23, 2008)

Jimbo60 said:


> Ads, if in color always had that funky over-saturated, surreal color pallette thing going on. With the typical Kodachrome color cast.


 
I was just looking at a (probably late-60's) NASA souvenir postcard the other day and it definitely conforms to this description.


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## Fiendish Astronaut (Feb 23, 2008)

bhop said:


> Same here.
> 
> I think you might be trying to hard.. just mess with your saturation and tones and you should be ok.



No - I know it's something simple like this, but I've never been able to find a consistent approach to doing it.


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## Digital Matt (Feb 23, 2008)

99% of the 60's look is going to be in the styling of the sets and actors.



Fiendish Astronaut said:


> No - I know it's something simple like this, but I've never been able to find a consistent approach to doing it.



If you read the site I linked you to, you'll find some insights, like this:

"In Utah, there is a popular state park named by the National Geographic Society as Kodachrome Basin due to the colorful rock formations and deep-blue sky. In many respects Kodachrome is the great American film -- it was formulated to render Caucasian *skin tones a satisfying pink*, and *turn blue skies into something best described as God-like*. You could say that Kodachrome is like every other color film, only more so."

High contrast, high saturation, and if you look closely at the images on that page, most seem to have a slight shift towards magenta (helping to get pink skin tones).  Achieving this in photoshop is a no-brainer.


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## Bull Goose (Feb 25, 2008)

Not sure if your deadline is passed now, but what about using Exposure 2 to get that Kodachrome look?

http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/exposure_examples.html

Their Velvia 50 or polaroid effect might be good too.

I've never used it, but they've got a 30 day demo to try it out...


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## Fiendish Astronaut (Feb 29, 2008)

Thanks Bull Goose that's exactly what I used. Great comment as I got hold of it and have then just read your post. It's a great plugin.


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## Fiendish Astronaut (Mar 22, 2008)

I always meant to update you lot with results of this. I used the Alien Skin plugin although took me a while to fiddle around with the settings - instead of selecting a particular film type, I selected "Old Feel" and fiddled with the settings. The only criticism I have of my own results is that the grain gets lost because the size of these were so large; but that's how I had to provide them!





Thanks once again for everyone's help.


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## molsen (Mar 22, 2008)

mess with the levels, contrast and saturation to get the kodachrome effect.  you can sort of get it by intensifying reds and a specific hue of blue....other methods will get the same thing


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## Happy Hour (Mar 22, 2008)

Fiendish Astronaut said:


> I always meant to update you lot with results of this. I used the Alien Skin plugin although took me a while to fiddle around with the settings - instead of selecting a particular film type, I selected "Old Feel" and fiddled with the settings. The only criticism I have of my own results is that the grain gets lost because the size of these were so large; but that's how I had to provide them!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wow! turned out great! Defiantly doesn't look like it was taken recently. I think it has that old feeling with cleaner results.


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## Fiendish Astronaut (Mar 22, 2008)

Thanks HP!


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