The Ohanaware Weblog
Vintage HDR How To or How to make old looking HDRs
For this tutorial we’re going to be making a vintage looking photo, but this time we’re going to using an HDR photo. If you didn’t know, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It’s a fairly recent method of photography and it can produce some amazingly wonderful results. So why would anyone want to make an HDR image, look old? Why not. HDR can be used to bring out the detail that you never thought was there and this in turn can make a Vintage photo look amazing! Do you want to see what I mean?
Example:
Lets take this photo of a kids clothing store. The camera produces a pretty dark photo and what detail is in the dark is lost, shame. If we make it look a Vintage photo it’s not that much better.
If we use an HDR version of the Kids clothing store and then apply the same Vintage effect, wow! That’s pretty cool!
You see an HDR photo is not only brighter, but it contains far more detail than a single photo, also HDR photos can contain less noise! If you’d like to know more about taking an HDR photo, we have a tutorial How to take or shoot photos for HDR
- First you need to make a HDR photo or a Fake HDR photo. You can use almost any HDR software, however I’m going to use the FREE HDRtist. HDRtist makes HDR quick and easy, and if you don’t have multiple exposures, HDRtist can create a Fake HDR from just a single photo. I used 3 exposures of the Kids clothing store.
- When you’re happy with your HDR, you’ll need to save it, and bring it into your photo editor. One of the neat things about HDRtist, is the “Edit In Funtastic Photos” option. It not only renders your HDR, but then imports it into Funtastic Photos ready for you to make it a Vintage photo. If you want to use a different photo editor, you’ll need to click on the Save button and then open it into your photo editor. I’m gonna click on “Edit In Funtastic Photos“… In a few moments my HDR photo is in Funtastic Photos.
- The next step will vary depending on which photo editing software you are using. If you’re using Funtastic Photos your HDR will be ready and waiting for you. You’ll need to choose which Vintage style you like. Make sure you can see the Styles bar at the bottom of the window. If not, select “1-Click Styles” from the “View” menu. Then click on “Vintage Camera” category and you can then click through the different 1-Click Styles to choose the Vintage Style you like. Personally I chose the “1980s Lomography” style.
- If you don’t have Funtastic Photos you’ll want to do a search on making a photo look old, to complete this tutorial.
- Voila, that was easy and now we have an amazing looking Vintage HDR. You can share it online, print it out, set it as your desktop… There is even a flickr group for Vintage HDR, HDRtist, Funtastic Photos and a bunch of groups dedicated to HDR.
