How to make a photo that looks old

[Duolab123]

You should pick up some authentic old prints that show "silvering out."

I don't know. Is there a way to deliberately cause that effect?

Or at least simulate it with a little purple oil coloring and some limited-area "ferrotyping" (press print with hot iron but not all over, just where you colored.).

A buddy of mine and I tried to make knock off real photo post cards about 30 years back, so since we never sold any I guess I can't go to jail.
We used a process camera with Eastman PRO copy film to make 1:1 copy negs of a premo original card . We would contact print on double weight Azo 11 X14 made 8 cards. Azo stock didn't have any uv brighteners. After normal development we cooked up a brew of our own version of Halo chrome (Tollens reagent for aldehydes). Used dilute in combination with regular dektol we were able to get very subtle silver in in the shadows. Used an antique letter press to backprint either an Azo or Kruxo back. Then a very little dilued tea, maybe a smudge of cigarette ash on the back and rough up the edges a bit. Pretty impressive I found a few the other day. Looked good.

One trick is find some Single weight F surface fiber base paper and ferrotype it. That puts it pre rc paper.

[Rael]

If I shoot modern normal 4x5 film (say HP5+, because I've got some anyway) with a modern lens at a small aperture, with a blue filter, of subjects with no technological items in view and in period costume, and find a way of contact printing it onto old paper with an era-appropriate process, will there be anything about that print to make you shout "Ah ha! It's modern!"?

You could pick this up: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/183201...ype-Parlor-Kit

[Harold_4074]

If you are going to make six copies of one photograph, and anyone is aware that all six are the same, then it may be difficult to come up with a "cover story" which explains how six copies of the same (amateur?) image survived together for the better part of a century.

Something that would help is to make contact prints in one of the common roll-film formats of the period, unless the photo in question is supposed to be "professional", in which case a plate size from the pre-4x5 era would be appropriate. An advantage of roll film is that all six could have come from a roll of, for example, 616 film and kept as a "set" of pictures from one session. (The popularity of 4x5 format is "relatively" modern, and may well flag a nominally 1910 contact print as anomalous, particularly if has borders and yet is perfectly composed for its format.) For example, 616 film made six (and later eight) 2-1/2 x 4-1/4 images, which look distinctly archaic today.

As noted above, the paper will be the key; very early on, it would have been albumen, which you might approximate by artificially ageing a modern double-weight warm-tone image (except for the surface texture...). Later, chloride contact papers like Azo or the modern equivalent would have been common, and the images would have been cooler-toned (while ageing turned the paper base warmer). Early on, single weight paper was the most common except for commercial work, since double-weight paper was more expensive; this stayed true until well into the modern era. Someone more knowledgeable than myself may be able to tell you when ferrotyping became common; I know that it was the standard drugstore finish at least by the 1930s and persisted until the advent of RC papers, probably because ferrotyping drum dryers were so efficient.

What you are attempting is mostly an exercise in applied perceptual psychology, so the more you can do in the way of confirming others' expectations the better it will work. "Foxing" by tea staining should be present on any really old print, and practically everyone has seen it in person or reproduction, so it is expected even if the viewer couldn't tell you why. Prints that presumably would have been handled a lot should be slightly dog-eared, and adding "wear" to the corners with very fine sandpaper will have an almost subliminal effect. Prints that presumably came from an old album will be enhanced by the residue of library paste and soft paper from their original mounting, or triangular blemishes from the use of photo mounting corners. And so forth...your phase "undefinable but natural" is exactly on the money.

I presume that if you use 4x5 Ilford film you are also knowledgeable enough to be able to spot the artifacts of technique which marked the various eras of photography: couples posed in the center of the frame (in the days of simplistic viewfinders), pictures taken under blank skies (blue-sensitive emulsions and overcast days because of glare with uncoated lenses) and blurred foliage (with a large negative and a contact print, hand-holding at 1/25 second wasn't difficult, but the wind didn't care about that). Prior to WWII, "fast" film was ASA 50, which explains the characteristic look of old "action" pictures. A superb reference for this sort of thing is The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888--1978 (Greenough and Waggoner, 2007) because the images are authoritatively dated and reproduced in color. Possibly someone can suggest a similar reference for commercial photography.

I hope that you are successful; this kind of thing can be really fun. A few years back I needed a modern print of a 40-year-old negative to support a friendly deception in connection with my high school reunion; we wanted to furnish a plausible origin for snapshots that would otherwise prematurely give away my involvement. I picked a "reject" image, printed it on single-weight paper, tea-stained it, and then aged it with sandpaper and added some minor "distressing" to the face. It was sent to the reunion committee through a "cutout" who claimed to have found it in a box of souvenirs in the back of a closet, and it apparently passed muster even alongside large numbers of authentic pictures!

Best of luck, and I for one would love to hear how it works out.

[Winger]

You haven't mentioned where you are. If you're lucky enough, there might be a member not too far from you who might be willing to help you out with darkroom use. I know if you're near me I would. I also have some old prints if you want to see how they feel and look. But since they're family prints, I'm not going to let them out of my possession - sorry 'bout that. I don't remember the exact ages of what I have, but some are 1940 or earlier (not sure if I have any as old as 1910). I mostly have negatives.
I agree that the paper is a huge key to pulling off the feel and look of an old print. An RC paper would not work at all, imo, and the fiber papers I've used are not like the old ones. The base is creamier in the old ones and the weight of the paper is different. Tea staining might be the way to go as it's fairly simple.

[bobwysiwyg]

You could pick this up: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/183201...ype-Parlor-Kit

Very intriguing. Might give this a try, thanks for posting the link.

[javidson]

Thanks again for these further answers.

Sadly, I'm located in a distant and exotic developing country, where I've never found the customs service willing to allow anything in that they're not familiar with (and even then often after extensive delays and non-specific "taxes"). What's easy to pick up as a kit in the USA can be a major procurement challenge in countries without much interest in amateur photography.

I could theoretically try to source chemicals from local general chemical suppliers for more standard things at least, and know someone who knows someone who works at the photography college so might be able to get darkroom space... and then start learning a new process. However, if anyone knows an individual or lab that does old processes on a mail-in basis, I'd find that a very attractive option.

To answer a couple of the points brought up by Harold_4074 in his very interesting post: my scenario is that these photos will form the denouement of a mystery thing. They'll serve to prove that a person present at the event is the same as a mysterious figure the group's been investigating in historical documents from a hundred years ago. It's a matter of having photographic "proof" that my friend who's playing the Man of Mystery is clearly visible and identifiable in an image or a set of different images discovered from the period we've been looking at. Image(s) will be of him, in period dress and period settings, perhaps with one or two other people.


I have access to libraries of old photos from the few photographers who did most work in the country, so can get a good idea of what kinds of compositions they favoured and try to ape their style - though rather than the unnecessary risk of trying to fake a particular photographer or studio, my goal is to try for more of a "possible student of...".

It all boils down to two features: the print is convincingly old, and unmistakeably depicts the person in the room, looking unaged.

[dsphotog]

Have an Elvis impersonator in the photo.
Wink wink!
And maybe ask someone like this guy to print it for you.

A buddy of mine and I tried to make knock off real photo post guess I can't go to jail.
We used a process camera with Eastman PRO copy film to make 1:1 copy negs of a premo original card . We would contact print on double weight Azo 11 X14 made 8 cards. Azo stock didn't have any uv brighteners. After normal development we cooked up a brew of our own version of Halo chrome (Tollens reagent for aldehydes). Used dilute in combination with regular dektol we were able to get very subtle silver in in the shadows. Used an antique letter press to backprint either an Azo or Kruxo back. Then a very little dilued tea, maybe a smudge of cigarette ash on the back and rough up the edges a bit. Pretty impressive I found a few the other day. Looked good.

One trick is find some Single weight F surface fiber base paper and ferrotype it. That puts it pre rc paper.