Photography | Ryan O. Hicks

25Jul/100

Vintage/Retro Photo Post Processing Tutorial

I recently went down to Jacksonville, FL for a trip to house hunt because I will be moving there with my family mid September this year. While I was there I had the pleasure to meet up with a buddy of mine in Sebastian, Brian Storey (please check his work out; I can’t say enough about his skills). He made a few phone calls and was able to line up two models for both us to shoot, Taylor and Emily. I had a lot of fun and can't wait till I move in down there.

After posting some of Emily's photos, I was getting a lot of people asking me how I processed the photos. Although, not every one of her photos was processed like this exact tutorial. I will help explain how I did two of my favorite images from her session. I like to process a lot of my photos with a vintage/retro/old poloraid feel to them. I enjoy that style, and I feel it helps convey certain moods in photographs. Without this type of processing there would of been nothing exciting about the image. The original image is fine SOOC (straight out of camera), but the mood is created by the tones and final post-processing I did to it. Not every photo will come out like the end result in this tutorial. A lot of factors depend on how the end result will look. For example how well the original image was strobed, your scene, and original tones in the image.

You need a well lit image to begin with. It doesn't matter how good your post-processing skills are, you will need a good SOOC shot to begin this process. A lot of people don't understand the importance of lighting in your image (this is whole other topic). If your image isn't well lit, your image is broken. Always think ahead when you are on a shoot for how you think you will be processing the photo. This will help with model placement, poses, lighting, and other things to make your post-process (PP) easier and quicker. My workflow is always Camera>Lightroom>Photoshop. I split my editing almost equally between lightroom and photoshop now, but that also depends on the type of photo concept I am working on.

Here is my original image. It is a good exposure and I'm happy with it, but the mood just isn't complete.