One Four Challenge: July Week 2
Yes, I know, I’m late! My brain clearly wasn’t firing on all cylinders on Monday. Having completed the post, I then somehow forgot to actually publish it. Doh!
My second edit for July’s One Four Challenge from Robyn Gosby is a vintage style. The scene made me think of a photograph you might find in an old collection tucked away in a box. When I first started developing my own prints in a darkroom I really didn’t know much about the timings of using each chemical bath and washing my photographs. Many of my early prints are now faded and discoloured as a result of my lack of knowledge and their exposure to sunlight over time. They seem even older than they actually are! I wanted to try to recreate this feel within this week’s edit.
In Lightroom I applied a Greater Than Gatsby preset to my Week 1 edit. I used the Enchanted B&W Base which I then customised to my own liking. I opened this edit in Photoshop and created several duplicate layers of the base image. To the first duplicate I applied the Solarise filter which I then inverted, blended with Soft Light and reduced the opacity. To the second I added a Warming Photo Filter and blended using Overlay. I applied a White Masking Layer to this then using a soft black brush, gradually removed areas of the overlay to reveal the effects beneath. To the third duplicate I added a customised blur with masking layer and gradually removed the blur from certain areas. Finally I added a texture overlay of a tea stain which was again customised with a masking layer, blended with Overlay and I reduced the opacity until it felt right.
Taking One Day At A Time 
Yikes, it looks a bit creepy……something nasty in the woodshed!
Hahaha! I think a lot of old photos have a certain creepiness about them.
Meant to say – clever edit!
Thanks Sue 🙂 Still creeping you out though?
😉
This is so pretty. Love what you have done with it and it certainly has an old photo feel to it.
Thanks Raewyn 🙂 Glad you like it!
I love the softness of the plants and the contrast with the lines of the shed. A great edit. 🙂
Thank you so much 🙂 I’m really glad that you like the contrast in textures and lines! All the masking layers were worth it in the end.
Beautiful, Sarah, very effective. Thanks as always for the processing details – your processing techniques are far and above anything I ever tackle! Adrian 🙂
Thanks Adrian 🙂 Processing is a different tool for every artist! I absolutely revel in it but for other photographers it can be incredibly time consuming and confusing. When I’m doing a complex process I feel like I’m painting again 😀
Yes, I can understand the similarity to painting. One day I may have to get into Lightroom. But for now the Nik Collection does most things for me – and I know you’re a fan too. A 🙂
I certainly am! I like Lightroom for organising my photos and getting a good base process. Often my photos only ever need the Lightroom treatment 🙂
oh this is my favourite so far!!! wonderful edit!
Thanks Cybele 🙂 It has a romantic feel I think.
It looks great, you achieved your goal.
Thank you so much 🙂
Love it .. Makes me think of yesteryear. Nice processing
Thanks Julie 🙂 That’s exactly what I wanted!
Hi Sarah – except for the tones, this almost has an infrared feel about it, with the wonderful softness and depth you’ve created.
I really enjoyed reading your process for this week 😃😃 Lovely!
Thanks Robyn 🙂 Some old and sun-damaged photos do seem to have a bit of an infrared look to them. I always loved messing about with the chemicals in the darkroom to get all sorts of distressed looks to my photos, particularly the abstract ones. It’s fun finding new ways of achieving those looks through digital processing 🙂