El Dave Photography

I realize that I didn't give any tips or clues as to my setup in my last post, and, as an apology I want to share with you a technique to give your photos that really great antique look. After today you will no longer run to the Sepia Filter and cry that all the others are making fun of you. Today is the day you stand proud and cast away Sepia forever. Girl, it's just bringing you down!
Yeah, I snapped my fingers after I typed that, what of it?

The technique is called TTV, short for Through the Viewfinder. It mimics the look of vintage cameras and lenses that have become such sought-after items today, without having to track down and buy those expensive lenses. The best part of TTV photography is that it's free! All you have to do is give credit to whomever created the filter (or else you run the risk of being THAT GUY, and, hey, don't be that guy) and provide a link back to them.

For Pei Mei, I used the excellent Spartus Shade by Nesster. I shot Pei Mei in the lightbox with stronger lighting on the left side of the frame because I wanted to recreate that blown out look of really old cameras. You know, where the guy pulls the cloth over his head, then sets off a flash flare? In the cowboy movies? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about!

I'm going to assume you use Photoshop, because I'm not familiar enough with any other Photo Software to provide accurate instruction.

First, select your TTV border from any number of great places. I personally prefer the Flickr Noise and Dust Through the Viewfinder Group due to the amazing variety of TTV's that are available and I know exactly who should get the credit. Once you've brought it up in Photoshop, go back to your original toy photo and crop it down to match the size of your TTV. Copy and paste the TTV as a new Layer, then (this is where it gets complicated) change the Blending Mode to "Multiply".

That's it.

Seriously, that's all you have to do. Well, ok, you may have to do a little cleanup and play with the Blending Mode to get it just right, but that's really all there is to it.

Don't believe me? Try it yourself.

My EXIF is devastating!

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePixS2Pro
Exposure:	0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture:	f/1.8
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	1 EV

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:02:12 16:40:51
Tag::TIFF::0x882A:	-6, -6
Exposure Program:	Manual
Date and Time (Original):	2008:02:12 16:42:35
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:02:12 16:42:35
Shutter Speed:	4321928/1000000
Brightness:	150/100
Metering Mode:	Center Weighted Average
Light Source:	Daylight
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	630 dpc
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	630 dpc
Sensing Method:	One-chip colour area sensor
Exposure Mode:	Manual
White Balance:	Manual
Focal Length In 35mm Film:	75
Saturation:	High saturation
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	1200 pixels
Image Height:	1200 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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