Civil War Reenactment- old photo look

[Harpo]

Given a low contrast Sepia and a few tweaks in post using Aperture. Any advice on getting closer to a period look for these images from the civil war era (1860"s) using what I have?
C&C welcome!

1

Union Horse by MikePhoto63, on Flickr

2

The Advance by MikePhoto63, on Flickr

3

Firing Line by MikePhoto63, on Flickr

4

The March by MikePhoto63, on Flickr

[JPS]

Hi Mark, you have produced a very nice set of pictures here. I do not use Aperture so cannot advise you, but have added a few tweaks in Elements: Noise / full sepia, to see what you think.
I would like to see more if you have them. Well done.

[Trina]

Very nice group of photo's. I can't help much with the processing idea... other then I thought they should be a bit more yellowed and not quite so sharp which John took care off:> Nice work John. I just hope I get some equally nice ones next week... we are heading out for a Rendezvous (mountain man reenactment).

[JPS]

Very nice group of photo's. I can't help much with the processing idea... other then I thought they should be a bit more yellowed and not quite so sharp which John took care off:> Nice work John. I just hope I get some equally nice ones next week... we are heading out for a Rendezvous (mountain man reenactment).

Trina,
don't forget to post and let me know, I love this type of shots.
Regards

[Muriel]

I hope you don't mind but I had to play with you photo.
I tired to make a postcard

[Harpo]

Thanks guys for the advice. more Yellowed? I was trying to compare them to pics I've seen at the Gettysburg Battlefield bookstore. Some are B&W, others sepia of various degrees.

The postcard is cool! Muriel, Is that a textured effect you put in as a layer?

[Muriel]

I used a texture... actually from an adobe wall. And then placed an overlay over it all. There are about six different layers in the whole card.
I might add I really enjoyed your pictures. They were very nice.

[lenelg]

From my experience - I do a lot of restoration work on old family photos - old photos are a lot more faded than your photos, with few really dark tones - Muriels example comes closer. Have you tried opening up the shadow areas with Adjustments>Shadow/Highlight ?

[lenelg]

I opened up the shadows with Adjustments>Shadows/Highlights, Shadows set to 50% (default in Photoshop)
In Adjustments>Curves, I dragged the black end of the curve vertically (along the output axis) to fade the image a little.
To add a bit of noise, I added a second layer, filled with 50% gray, and set it to Overlay.
I added noise to this layer (18% Gaussian noise) softened the noise with gaussian blur (0,5 px), and adjusted Opacity to abt 33%.

[Sonic4Spuds]

I think the last one here is the closest, more fading, less detail especially in the clouds, and noise.

-Sonic

[Donald]

Any advice on getting closer to a period look for these images from the civil war era (1860"s) using what I have?

Mike - I think I might have been tempted to go quite heavy with vignetting

[Kris V]

Inspired by Muriel: (Thanks!)

[Harpo]

Mike - I think I might have been tempted to go quite heavy with vignetting

Yes. Looking at some old photos, thats one thing Im seeing more of…

On the other hand, someone on another forum showed me an example taking the image of the line of soldiers and tried his hand in the Antique Plate preset in Silver Efex Pro 2, and it gave a very close likeness to some of the images Ive seen in some of the photos at the Gettysburg National Battlefield. Since some of you have that program, thoughts?

I need to play with them more incorporating your suggestions.