I’ve been on the exciting journey of developing my voice in photography and reached the point where in terms of subject matter and color grading i now know precisely what i want. That said i’m completely stumped on how to get the proper colors I’ve been falling in love with in post processing!
I understand the biggest first step is take photos in the lighting, and of the colors you’re looking for; which i have begun. But i can’t get this vibe I’ve been looking for.
This google drive link takes you to a folder with a few photos with the colors and true feeling i’ve been looking for:
Most of those are clipped from old magazines, which means a half tone process with quite a bit of contrast.
The first thing I’d do is make a palette out of colors you like, then use the eye dropper tool to.manipulate the colors until they match your swatches.
I don’t find the series of images completely coherent with itself, for instance some have light blacks whilst others have dark blacks; some are saturated, others are desaturated. The only quality for me that they have in common, is that they are all a bit yellow, so try playing with RGB curves e.g. drag the centre of the blue curve down a little.
Aside from getting the look, once you achieve the look you want, you could use these settings to create a HaldCLUT Film Simulation - RawPedia
Half toning is part of the magazine printing process, I find it adds contrast and saturation to the image, with perhaps a slight yellowing, depending on the paper stock.
I’ll add some more descriptors: they have very small palettes; a few have a comparatively small object with more varied colours; most colours are pastels (lowish saturation but high intensity); there is little texture; the images have simple structures; almost all have people; eggs are common; almost all are NOT ordinary photographs, but have a cartoon effect.
If you are starting from photos, look for backgrounds like those (textureless, single-colour) and models in similar clothing. Spend time simplifying.
Ahh I see, thank you. The yellow undertone is actually something i’m definitely going to try. Didn’t know it could be achieved by dragging the center of a blue curve down.
I see. Unfortunately RawTherapee doesn’t seem to have any way to halftone photos.
Also, thanks to your comment I began to look through different era’s of magazines. I found I’m most drawn to the colors from 1950’s magazines and movie posters. How do you feel i’d be able to tastefully replicate that in a photo edit? I think this last bit of information is all I would need to really create the photos i’d be happy with.