Images that are dramatically stained with age carry a distinct charm that sometimes leaves us staring at them with utmost awe and inexplicable nostalgia.
Undoubtedly, there is always glamour and romance in a vintage piece of art. That is why, in this day and age, a lot of people (especially contemporary artists) are inspired by the photographic language of the olden era.
With the many modern techniques and tricks available in this digital age, even an amateur shutterbug or a simple vintage-photo enthusiast like me can create faux antique images that look like the real thing.
The remarkable tools of the digital darkroom, or in simpler terms—your home computer, make it possible to create nostalgic images quite easily, especially since the necessary software is available for free on the Internet. One example is BWorks from Mediachance, a company that has already produced a whole range of helpful programs for digital image editors.
BWorks transforms digital color images into black and white photos or so-called duotones. In this context, the Windows program can not only take care of reducing the images to the grayscale, but can also apply numerous effects to make them look as if they were photographed 100 years ago. Yup, just like those antique photos that you adore. Noise, color defects and the like are some of the phenomena that give the nostalgic effect to a modern image— and they're precisely what BWorks can produce on your pictures. Let me tell you how.
After installing and starting the program, the software opens a dialog box in which you can first load the original photo, which BWorks displays on the left side of the window. There is a drop-down menu underneath this window that contains all the effects of the Mediachance software. As a standard function, the software converts the image into a conventional black and white photo (as would also be possible in a normal image editing program) by reducing the color saturation.
In addition to simple black and white copying, BWorks can add severe noise to the photo. You can also change the color to create sepia pictures, produce photos with hard contrast borders and achieve other artistic effects.
By following the no-brainer steps presented by different digital photo software like this, you can already capture the mystique and the dreamy quality of your great grandma’s old photographs and give your latest snapshots a sophisticated aura and style.
