Photography in 1961

[Tim Schulz]

Hi all,

I have a couple related questions:

Does anyone have insight into the film and format that a photographer for Life Magazine might have used in 1961?

Does anyone have good advice about how to convert a digital photograph to give it the look and feel of a Life Magazine photo from that era?

I appreciate any advice you might have.

[willmilne]

Films like Tri-X for B +W and Kodachrome in Leica M bodies or Nikon F bodies were mainstays. Life also used a number of photographers using 4×5 and larger sheet film

[Tim Schulz]

Will,

For an example, here is a link to a 1961 issue of Life Magazine:

http://books.google.com/books?id=blMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA0&dq=life+magazine+1961+december+22&hl=en&ei=BNl2TYyZEIHqrAH0xJT5CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

I’m most interested in the photographs on pages 94 through 100, those on pages 99 and 100 in particular.  (You probably know this, but you can enter the page number in the little box at the top of the viewer.)

Thanks,
Tim

[Zach Matthews]

I would say don’t use flash and shoot at ISO 3200 or higher to up the film grain, but I have no idea why you’d want to take backlit, grainy pictures like those.

The most remarkable thing about digital photography is how much better it made photos generally.

Zach

[kurt budliger]

“…I have no idea why you’d want to take backlit, grainy pictures like those.”

[Tim Schulz]

Kurt –  You are correct. I have the original magazine, and the photographs are much better than they appear in the scanned versions that are in Google books.

[bill 93]

Films l
Kodachrome was quite rich in colour but print tech often sqewed colours in one direction or another.

I know I wasn’t the one that asked, but that explains so much. I’ve been looking at a lot of old films (particularly Kodachrome) and trying to approximate the look with digital, so that explains why every time I think I’ve got it down I see another group of photographs and realize, “oh crap, I’ve got it all wrong.” At lot of examples I see on the web are probably printed and scanned. I guess I should rely more on my parents’ old slides instead, even if they didn’t take particularly compelling photographs.

[Mike L.]

If you are truly after the look, why dont you simply shoot and process your own film?

[bill 93]

I do shoot film, but Kodachrome was discontinued last year, that’s what got me wondering if I could successfully emulate the look of it.

[Tim Schulz]

Bill,

You might have seen this already, but, if not, this is a good place to start if you are interested in emulating Kodachrome colors:

http://www.defocus.net/2009/03/fun-with-the-dng-profile-editor.html

And you could look into the Alien Skin Exposure software.

[bill 93]

I have seen it, but my “my milage varied.” I was actually interested in this post (not it would help from a tech perspective) because I have been curious about whether I have been doing something wrong with the DNG profile editor.

[Chad Simcox]

Older film stocks may be tough to emulate with the modern films. That looks kodachrome to me, but tough to say from the scans.
I’d say go with a consumer film like Kodak Gold 400. Fuji’s consumer film may work as well. You’re looking for high contrast, low but compressed saturation and a bit of grain. Maybe AGFA Vista film would work as well. If you can find some Kodak Portra 400VC, that would give you the contrast you want. Then new Portra is going to be a bit low grain.

http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.

http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox Instagram

[Michael Phillippe]

If you are looking at a printed copy of the magazine be careful. As noted before, printing technology was not that great (dot gain, color shifts, etc.). Also paper quality will impact how well the image has been preserved. Unfortunately most printers and ad agencies digitized their images in the 90’s to save storage space so original photographs are going to be had to find.

But, scrolling through the images has been fun. I was 14 years old in 1961!

[Tim Schulz]

Thanks for all of the helpful comments.  You can order framed prints of some of Life’s photos, and I purchased one from this issue.  It is very nice.

I’ve been experimenting with Lightroom profiles that emulate Kodachrome 25 and 64 colors for my Canon 7D.  The 64 is nice, but the 25 can be harsh with some scenes.  Extreme reds and high contrast.

Cheers.

[Chad Simcox]

Last night I was playing around in Photoshop trying to come up with a vintage film look. This is what I came up with (mind the graphic vector over the image)

Notice the foliage in the foreground. What I did was use an adjustment layer and over saturate the Red, Yellow and Green channels. I then added more adjustment layers to address the contrast, curves and overall image saturation. I also added a sepia or warming filter over the top (can’t remember which).

http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.

http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox Instagram

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