Current blue tone washed out trend
Discussion
Per channel curves adjustment.
In this case, go to edit curves, pick the blue channel, and drag the bottom left handle up vertically, forcing the blue values to intensify at the lower end.
Depending on the effect you want, you can then put another handle in the middle and drag it back to the linear point so the mid range and highlights retain their natural colour balance.
Or you can do other things like pull green down at the top end giving the highlights a magenta kinda feel, again retaining the mid range and low end colour balances with extra control handles.
I don't really like the look. I think the advert for one of those dating sites has almost 20% blue in the blacks, it's really heavy duty and just looks weird.
Usually colour work is used to accentuate moods, especially in films. It's quite dramatic how far some footage is pushed and pulled. Scenes that were lit looking like day time can now be pushed to look like evening lighting because the footage from things like RED cameras has so much dynamic range and bitrate to prevent banding coming through.
However, instagram I think is just used to 'look' different, most filters just aim to achieve a look of old cameras, so often blurring, heavy vignetting, varying colour response over the image and all that stuff.
There is a charm to old photographs, I've been going through a lot myself recently, but they were all taken on old crap cameras. There is some nostalgia that comes through from them... but old GOOD images still look as good as images taken today.
Only images edited well still stand out, just like they always have done... and no single button app will ever replace creativity in that regard. Instagram for 99.9% of the users is just there to make their boring images look slightly interesting. Great, for a time.
Blah. Too many fads that come around and though there may be a good reason for the technique too many people just misuse it thinking they are 'artistic'
Dave
In this case, go to edit curves, pick the blue channel, and drag the bottom left handle up vertically, forcing the blue values to intensify at the lower end.
Depending on the effect you want, you can then put another handle in the middle and drag it back to the linear point so the mid range and highlights retain their natural colour balance.
Or you can do other things like pull green down at the top end giving the highlights a magenta kinda feel, again retaining the mid range and low end colour balances with extra control handles.
I don't really like the look. I think the advert for one of those dating sites has almost 20% blue in the blacks, it's really heavy duty and just looks weird.
Usually colour work is used to accentuate moods, especially in films. It's quite dramatic how far some footage is pushed and pulled. Scenes that were lit looking like day time can now be pushed to look like evening lighting because the footage from things like RED cameras has so much dynamic range and bitrate to prevent banding coming through.
However, instagram I think is just used to 'look' different, most filters just aim to achieve a look of old cameras, so often blurring, heavy vignetting, varying colour response over the image and all that stuff.
There is a charm to old photographs, I've been going through a lot myself recently, but they were all taken on old crap cameras. There is some nostalgia that comes through from them... but old GOOD images still look as good as images taken today.
Only images edited well still stand out, just like they always have done... and no single button app will ever replace creativity in that regard. Instagram for 99.9% of the users is just there to make their boring images look slightly interesting. Great, for a time.
Blah. Too many fads that come around and though there may be a good reason for the technique too many people just misuse it thinking they are 'artistic'
Dave
It's not quite the blue-biased result you enquired about but Chris Spooner's blog has a generic "vintage" processing tutorial which is very easy to follow & replicate. Bucketloads of other great processing/ design content on there, too.
http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/create-a...
http://blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/create-a...
Hair Flick said:
....TV adverts are using a low contrast blue tone washed out....
Although I have to confess I can't picture just what you mean, I like the quick and dirty "Selenium toning" look you can get with four easy clicks in Lightroom. In fact it's so easy it should definitely be banned!
That's the one I think. Match had an advert that for black had about 20% blue instead, or that's what it looked like. The images above look a bit more subtle.
As per the vintage look, I have lots of old images here that don't look 'vintage' but I know they are old.
Obviously people think their old family snaps are vintage because that is what many old photos were taken in, but even before the common person could buy a cheapy camera there were professionals taking well balanced accurately toned images.
So I think vintage actually means cheap old camera effect.
I'm looking forward to when everyone goes to black and white again for that extra vintage look
Dave
As per the vintage look, I have lots of old images here that don't look 'vintage' but I know they are old.
Obviously people think their old family snaps are vintage because that is what many old photos were taken in, but even before the common person could buy a cheapy camera there were professionals taking well balanced accurately toned images.
So I think vintage actually means cheap old camera effect.
I'm looking forward to when everyone goes to black and white again for that extra vintage look
Dave
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