Your freedom of subject choice continues this week with the “vintage” theme. When looking up the definition for this word, it’s most often associated with wine- particularly the year in which it was produced. But in terms of photographic subject matter the term “vintage” is used to describe something that is not new but is valued because it has a sense of nostalgia, is well-made and carries the quality of timelessness even though it is evident of a specific time or era. Black and white is a perfect partner for giving your image a vintage feel or recording that treasured object or memory.
A quick search on Google comes up with these basic tips:
To take vintage photos, you can use a vintage camera, add a filter, or use editing tools to create a vintage look. Use a vintage camera. Shoot with an old film camera, embrace lens imperfections, and choose an aperture that creates a blurry background.
Add a filter -
• Apply a vintage color wash, like sepia, blue, or green.
• Use a monochrome picture style.
Use editing tools-
• Add grain to your photo.
• Add noise to your photo.
• Create a vignette by leaving the edges of your photo underexposed.
• Flatten out the contrast in your image.
• Use the levels tool or effect sliders to bring up blacks and lower whites.
Other than using an actual film camera, most of these tips can be applied, adjusted or altered to fit the digital format we’re all familiar with now. Photo-processing programs offer a wide variety of effects, such as “pinhole” (which mimics a pinhole lens) and textures, such as “daugguerreotype” that can mimic the type of images that film cameras produced.
For further reading and inspiration you may want to check out these articles. Some of the tips in them deal with vintage color images, but the basic principles apply to black and white as well.
Need a little extra guidance on what to shoot? Both the Monthly Word Challenge and Monthly Theme are featuring black and white in February. Check out these links:
And the current Black and White Challenge is also featuring “Vintage.” So, make sure one of your images this week gets submitted to this challenge as well!
And now for the FUN part!! Friday February 14th is the day you get to introduce a flash of color into your month of black and white. For those of you who have never tried Selective Coloring before, these simple instructions should help you accomplish your “flash of red” (or whatever color you choose because, I know, some of you aren’t crazy about the “red day”!).
Selective Coloring is the technique where a color photo is reduced to monochrome with one portion or element of the image remaining in color. It can be overused as an effect if it is used too often. But when appropriately applied to an image it can be a powerful statement and elevate the mood of a shot. For Flash of Red 2025 purposes, it’s just fun!
We’re half way through the month and for some of you color-lovers, this has been a challenge. So, we’re going to help those feelings of withdrawal by introducing one splash of color on February 14th. At its inception the Flash of Red Challenge introduced the color red in honor of Valentine’s Day, hence its name includes that color. But over the years some 365ers have chosen a different color, and that’s ok. As the saying goes here, “Your project; your rules.” But there’s no denying that with black and white, the power color that pops the most is red.
This collage illustrates two approaches that could be taken with one image by using the on-line program Ribbet (http://ribbet.com) but every photo processing program has this ability and you will follow the same process no matter which program you are using. After I removed some annoying telephone wires from the sky and cropped the image so that the people were in better balance with the carnival ride, I was left with the center image on the top row and that became my base shot. I then adjusted the saturation and viberance and sharpened the image for better definition on the family walking along the Midway (top row far right).
The next step was to convert the image to black and white (bottom left). While in the black and white effect, I then selected an eraser which allowed me to remove the black and white effect from selected areas. I removed the black and white effect from the Midway ride on the bottom row center shot. I removed the black and white effect from the family on the bottom row right shot.
This week’s theme- vintage- is perfect for selective color since you can use that effect on a number of different kinds of images- still life, portraiture, architecture, and landscapes to name a few. No matter what your subject matter, the element you choose to highlight, or the color you choose to feature, this basic procedure is how you’ll accomplish your “flash”. So get your eyes ready for a fun pop of color before you return to black and white for the remainder of the month!
The tag for Flash of Red February 2025 continues to be FOR2025.
So, get nostalgic and search for those vintage images this week. As always I enjoy scrolling through the daily tags and seeing what you’ve done, even though I might not comment on them.
We're up to 48 participants this year- wow! I am always so grateful for the response to Flash of Red February. It really means the world to me! Here's next week's assignment so you can plan ahead if need be.
I see that the links are not showing up in blue, so apologies for that- they were active in my document but apparently lost something in the translation. However, you can still get to the articles etc. by opening a new tab, highlighting the link and then pasting it in the search line of your new tab. When you hit enter, it should take you to the link page. I would redo this, but with so much info in the post, it's just easier to leave it as is.
@olivetreeann
The links do not work when there is a photo in the same thread... or even if you try to bold a word or phrase. This has been a major frustration for me for ages since I would like to add a photo to the Weekly SH*T list or highlight the challenge names with bold.
But, no such luck.
@farmreporter Oh.... well the highlight and paste on a new tab will be the way to go then. It does work for both the outside articles and the challenges. Hmm...I have another idea. Let me see...
@30pics4jackiesdiamond Thanks Jackie- I'm not sure what the difference is either, but since I put all of them up in the comment box above, I think we're good to go. I'm pretty sure it was the insertion of the picture that threw things off because the first two weeks, which didn't have pictures, worked without a hitch. After putting up all that text, and tagging everyone, I don't feel like having to lose all that work and repost- so for this week the links in the comment box will work just fine.
@busylady Thanks for the notification Judith. I don't carry over the previous year, because I never know who wants to keep doing it, so when I put out the "It's Coming..." post I ask people to sign up again. I think you were out of town then?? So maybe it passed you by. No matter- I have added you to the 2025 tag list and you will be included next week. My apologies for making you feel left out!
@olivetreeann I love to participate but hope it's okay that I interpret the month differently than your instructions. Thanks again for the great exercise. I'm tagging my images FOR2025.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
Pin With Me
@nickspicsnz
@mittens
@brigette
@summerfield
@ljmanning
@chikadnz
@njmom3
@koalagardens
@merrelyn
@sewfree
@amyk
@rensala
@mona65
@30pics4jackiesdiamond
@spanishliz
@cdcook48
@cocokinetic
@thistle_01
@ankers70
@radiogirl
@cristinalesesma33
@christinav
@shutterbug49
@eudora
@365anne
@anniesue
@casablanca
@daisymiller
@annied
@farmreporter
@salza
@beryl
@northy
@pusspup
@skipt07
@carole_sanford
@phil_sanford
@haskar
@thistle_01
@joysabin
@pamknowler
@joansmor
@illinilass
@wakelys
@leggzy
@la_photographic
@jamibann
@susn824
The links do not work when there is a photo in the same thread... or even if you try to bold a word or phrase. This has been a major frustration for me for ages since I would like to add a photo to the Weekly SH*T list or highlight the challenge names with bold.
But, no such luck.
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/discover/add-vintage-aesthetic.html
https://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/50281/february's-monthly-theme-challenge
https://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/50265/february-2025-words-of-the-month
https://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/50246/let%E2%80%99s-see-your-vintage-b-and-w-for-b-and-w-95
These might work...
Okay - you are speaking Greek to me.
What is a hyperlink code and how do you do it?
@jeneurell Will do! Thanks for joining in Jennifer!
@yogiw Your project, your rules as they say-