Gast
Hello,
How do I create images with a pre-war look?
I mean those ‘dull’ black-and-white images with long shadows and a grainy texture over the image.
The images look quite sunny (a bit overexposed) and slightly impressionistic, because the grain simply doesn’t enhance the sharpness (it always looks as if the image is falling apart, with a tendency towards a grainy, sawdust-like effect), so not like with Efke.
Is there anything that can be done during development, or is it down to the film stock?
I’m sure you’re all familiar with (feature) films and photos from the pre-war era.
Regards,
jü
Roman
Jäg,
Do you have a link to an example image to show exactly what you mean?
To start with, I’d try using a blue filter (to simulate orthochromatic film – open shadows, white sky, ‘different’ tonal reproduction), perhaps combined with a light soft filter...
Roman
cfb_de
Hi Jörg,
An old Zorki, fitted with a pre-war 3.5/50 (uncoated FED/Elmar clone), loaded with HP5, with an exposure of just under 800, developed in Rodinal 1+25.
If you want it even more extreme: Lucky 100/same camera/with an exposure of 100/also Rodinal.
I’ll scan my steam locomotive photos when I get the chance.
Best regards,
Franz
SamuliSchielke
It may also be partly down to the paper processing. I recently reproduced Rodchenko’s look from the 1920s (particularly in his architectural photographs) quite by accident, through overexposure of a print on Polywarmtone and then removal from the cold-tone developer (AM 3003) before it had fully developed. Looking at it again now, I think that Rodchenko, like many others of his time, simply developed his prints by eye, which is why they often have blown-out highlights but, in contrast, strong greys and rich blacks. I don’t know if this is in any way similar to what you meant, but I think both the film/developer combination and the printing technique play a role if you want to reproduce the look of old images.
