I like this and will save it as my base Vintage preset. After I am happy with my curve I will add the film grain. I am moving the black point up from 0 to 20, then I’ll shape the line from a linear to a curved shape as seen below. With the curve, I am moving the white point down from 255 to 235 so 20 points down, and then I’ll do the same with the black. To make it look vintage I will make it a faded and grainy image. I took this cityscape (below) in France a few years back, but it could have been a long time ago as the buildings would not have changed. To make things easier to follow I’ll apply the colour adjustments using levels. I usually make my initial curves in the Luma panel and colour adjustments in the specific channels for red, green and blue (and their counterparts). I’ll be using Capture One, but these adjustments can be made in pretty much all professional editing software. I’m going to base my presets almost entirely on using curves, levels and grain. If you study film photography closely it quite often doesn’t appear as sharp as modern digital photography. Grain was present in most film photography and adding it will instantly bring out the film-like effect. Early Kodachrome film also appeared warm and some colours faded easily. When I make my presets I’ll be flattening both the highlights and the shadows for a vintage effect. When using film your whites will never clip, no matter how hard you push them. I’m going to generalise a little bit here and say that the colour film look is commonly lower in contrast than what modern digital cameras are capable of producing. A very simplified analysis is that the earlier film photographs have a faded appearance with fewer details in the shadows and highlights and that later film prints had more colour and contrast. Having said that I also love the saturated colours of the 1990s and the 2000s from photographers such as Philip-Lorca diCorcia. I appreciate the black and white faded look from the 1930s. The images that appeal to me appear a little faded and warm. Look at the overall high dynamic range - are the images high in contrast or faded? When you study images look at colour - is it saturated, desaturated or tinted with a specific hue? Another thing to look at is the overall colour balance - are the images cool or warm? Sometimes the highlights are warm and the shadows are cool. My personal favourites are nostalgic images from the 70s and 80s, but I also love the early black-and-white prints from the 1930s. I think a great way to learn what it is that you love about the film look is by studying photographs shot using it, particularly from the 20th Century.
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