Getting Grungy

As may have been apparent from elsewhere on this site I am a fairly enthusiastic photographer. I have a digital SLR (or two) and a collection of lenses, with which I strive to achieve digital perfection. However there seems to be quite a trend these days to replicating some of the older film and Polaroid looks, driven (almost inevitably) by iPhone apps with the ‘Hipstamatic’ look.

So after a trawl through some Photoshop tutorials and a bunch of Photoshop Actions (or ‘cheating’) I spent some time reworking some existing photographs to look like polaroid shots, or toy camera (Holga or Lomo) or just ancient distressed photographs. Some effects are as basic as slapping a frame around a picture, whilst other involve more extensive processing.

It’s actually a great way to rescue some pictures that otherwise wouldn’t have come up to standard – you don’t have be too fussed about sharpness, or perfect exposure and so on – they are meant to look like the snapshots in our parents’ photo albums. Once you’ve had a look at the results you can find links to resources used to create the effects at the bottom of this post.

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Resources:-
Andrea Rascaglia – Borders and inspiration
Dave Ward – Toy camera and retro styles
Kent Christiansen – Lensbaby effect
Addicted 2 Design Lomo effects
Rawimage Various Polaroid and Holga looks with ‘Polagen’ and ‘Holgagen’ Actions
Photoshop Hero Sundry Photoshop Tutorials, free brushes, frames and borders.
Polardroid – A standalone program for creating the look of Polaroid photos