Take Faux Vintage Photos Using Your Digital Camera

If you love the look of vintage photos, and would like to incorporate the effect into your photographic adventures, there's an easy, inexpensive and creative way and you don't even need to open Photoshop!

Digital cameras and Photoshop are a godsend for those who love perfection, technique, and fine tuning. However, there are those of us who love the imperfections, and lo-fi loveliness that was a part of photography before the ubiquity of digital cameras.

Photoshop allows one to create such imperfections and effects with layering of course, and it is possible to still find and use vintage cameras and traditional processing. But there's an easy way to create a vintage effect using your digital camera, and an inexpensive item from Lowe's. If you like to experiment with different artistic techniques,you'll love this.

In early cameras, the lens itself is responsible for some of the effects. Light leakage, and the shape and quality (or lack of) of the lens lent a specific look to the resulting photographs, a minor 'altered 'effect that we now identify as old fashioned and antique.

In early photography, the intention may have been to simply capture reality, but with our perspective now, the camera itself is part of the aesthetic equation; the medium is an inseparable part of the message.

Part of this vintage look is a fish-eye, distorted spherical quality. Such lenses were introduced commercially in the late 1940s. They create a nice distortion that lends a dreamlike or surreal quality to photographs. There is a cheap and easy way you can create and manipulate your own lenses.

Door Viewer

At hardware and home supply stores such as Lowe's, you can find door peepholes very inexpensively. These are the same exact devices you would purchase to place in your door. I purchased a nice, steampunk-looking burnished gold one for about $8.00. It's worked fabulously. I found the exact one I use on Lowe's website--it is designated as National Door Viewer 200 degree lens Item # 147349 Model # V805.

Instructions

The non-lens end of the peephole fits right over the lens of your digital camera. To use it, simply hold it in place over your camera's lens, focus to your preference, and take a picture. The result is an unusual, faux vintage photo.

Holding the peephole against the camera lens takes a bit of getting used to-the slightest movement changes the peephole's placement, thus affecting the view and resulting image. However, even dynamics like this can create nice and interesting effects. I've taken some "accidental" shots that are some of my favorites.

You'll notice that adjusting the camera's telescopic and wide angle features makes a big difference with the peephole. The wider the view, the more drastic and 'distant' the fisheye effect. The closer the view, the more subtle. The wide view allows you to create some really strange effects-pointing the camera at the ceiling or sky, you're able to get a panoramic (albeit distorted) shot of an entire room or landscape. The closer view imparts a more vintage look.

Once you start taking photos with your peephole, you'll quickly develop a knack for it, based on your own holding technique, and aesthetic tastes. I've found that holding the peephole against the camera lens, as you would a cigarette, between the index and middle fingers of my left hand, works best.

Of course, if you use a tripod with your camera, it's much easier to hold the peephole steady, and adjust as necessary.

DIY Filters for the peephole lens

Watching the DVD extras included with the film The Saddest Music in the World, I was intrigued with the director, Guy Maddin's, easy, DIY technique of creating drastic lighting effects for the film with a dab of Vaseline on the camera's lens. I tried it myself with an old digital camera, and it worked great.

A tiny spot of Vaseline rubbed on the lens (outer side) will impart an additional sense of vintage style. Light gets diffused and exaggerated, and the result is a dreamy, very atmospheric image. To remove the Vaseline, use a swab with a tiny bit of dish detergent, and wipe clean with a damp cloth. Dry the lens with the other side of the Q-tip.

Anything that isn't opaque can be used as a filter over the peephole lens. Just keep in mind that unless you have assistance or a tripod, you'll have one hand with which to hold the peephole and anything else. Saran wrap is a nice, light altering filter, and it can easily be affixed and held over the peephole.

Brown, grey, green, or yellow transparent papers or materials can be held (or taped) over the peephole lens to create a vintage sepia tone.

Now you're ready to start experimenting--off to Lowe's you go!