Steve McQueen "effect"

[Steve Allen]

Hi everybody, I would like to put the same effect of this photo on another photo of mine.
I've tried various effects but still cannot obtain the same colours!

My problem is to give the blue tone preserving the white! Everytime I try to put some blue effect it applies it also to the white, how can I do?

Thank you!

 

[Paul]

Welcome Steve.

Ain't he the bomb or what so cool.

Your image new blank layer filled with blue drop opacity ( original image should be black and white) good luck nice to see your efforts mate.

 

[Tom Mann]

Put a solid cyan-blue color adjustment layer in the stack above the photo.

Set the blending mode of that layer to color.

Double click on the layer to view the layer's properties.

Split the right hand lower slider by holding down the alt key and drag the left half of the lower right slider almost all the way to the left. This gradually fades in the colorizing effect from maximum (for the darkest tones) to zero (for the lightest tones).

Finally, if a particular image needs it, you can go back and tweak the color and/or opacity of the color adjustment layer, or even add a "Levels" or a "Curves" adjustment layer at the top of the stack to adjust these aspects of the image.

Below is an example of using the above procedure on an old Russian news photo of Yuri Gagarin.

HTH,

Tom

PS - There are many other ways to get this look. This was only one of them. Other folks may chime in with mini-tutorials for their favorite methods.

 

[Steve Allen]

Split the right hand lower slider by holding down the alt key and drag the left half of the lower right slider almost all the way to the left. This gradually fades in the colorizing effect from maximum (for the darkest tones) to zero (for the lightest tones).

As I am not an english guy could you please explain me better these steps?

Thank you and I appreciate your help!

 

[Steve Allen]

Ok I get it!!!

 

[Steve Allen]

Now I have my tone what I wanted to! Thank you so much!

Can I save this adjustments as a "preset" so I can find it next time I use PS??

 

[Steve Allen]

Sorry, I really have to try before asking something, as I found by myself how to save a preset!

Thank you for your time, I'll be back soon on this amazing forum!

 

[IamSam]

Steve, unless I'm mistaken, the only way to make what Tom described as a "preset", would be to make an action with the steps that can be used on other photos.

 

[Tom Mann]

Steve - I hope it's obvious to you that there are many other differences between Steve McQueen's photo and the one of Yuri Gagarin in addition to simply coloring the darker tones blue-cyan. There are big differences in the film grain, in the lighting and contrast, shadow detail, etc.

If you want to discuss these, please don't hesitate to ask.

Tom

 

[Steve Allen]

Tom I was just trying to make my "modern" photo more similar to the McQueen one, but without any success!

How can I do? What have I to change?

Thanks

Steve

 

[Tom Mann]

What makes a photo look old are all the different type of imperfections that were typical of photos of that era. These include:

• lens: vignetting
• other lens problems such as geometric distortion and soft edges
• negative: film grain (clumping, appropriate size distribution & variation of the grain between shadow and highlight areas, )
• negative: dust, scratches, etc.
• negative: uneven development
• negative: density vs exposure curves with long tails in both shadow and highlight areas
• so there is a gradual loss of contrast in nearly blown highlights and deep shadows
• highlight and shadow spreading (ie, halation)
• print: intentional toning (appropriate variation in color as you go from shadows to highlights)
• print: fading with age (... often uneven)
• print: surface texture
• print: tape and other mounting methods (and their fading)
• print and tape: rough cut edges
• etc.

For an experienced Photoshopper, none of these are particularly difficult to simulate (at least to a superficial degree of accuracy), but there are quite a few of them. In fact, this is a sufficiently common request that quite a few firms have developed plugins and other software to "antique" modern photos. If nothing else, mucking up a new photo is infinitely easier than trying to make an old photo look new by ridding it of all of the above flaws.

Below is an example where, for purposes of clarity, I greatly exaggerated some of the above effects (especially film grain) on the photo of Yuri Gagarin that I previous posted.
Cheers,

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

PS - BTW, you should Google the term, "cyanotype" or the phrase "cyanotype tutorial". This is an old film-based process that looks like it was applied to the photo you posted.

Also, BTW, I gave the Gagarin photo a slightly different color than usual for cyanotypes. This was intentional.

T