{"id":15757,"date":"2014-07-14T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=15757"},"modified":"2024-03-28T05:20:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T12:20:02","slug":"how-to-achieve-that-crushed-black-film-look-in-photoshop-and-lightroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-that-crushed-black-film-look-in-photoshop-and-lightroom","title":{"rendered":"How To Achieve That Crushed Black Film Look in Photoshop and Lightroom"},"content":{"rendered":"
Today we’re going to see how you can achieve that popular film look everyone is applying to their photos these days. It’s a super simple effect, but one that can be pretty tricky to figure out on your own. I’ll show you a number of ways to achieve it in both Photoshop and Lightroom.\n
<\/span>That Film Look<\/span><\/h2>
\nToday’s trendy photos have an aesthetic to them that’s hard to pin down. Despite being very different in subject matter, composition and even color, they tend to share a certain look and feel. What is it?\n <\/figure>\n \n <\/figure>\n \n <\/figure>\n \n <\/figure>\n \n <\/figure>\n \n <\/figure>\n \n <\/figure>\n \nWhen asked to describe this look, many would use words like “vintage” and “retro”, some might even go so far as to say these photos look more like they were taken on a film camera than a digital one.\nIf we’re looking to recreate this effect though, these adjectives don’t really help us. There’s no “vintage” button in Photoshop that makes all your photos magically look like this, so how do you do it?\n<\/p>
<\/span>Dynamic Range<\/span><\/h2>
\nDynamic range refers to the full gamut of values for a given quantity. It’s a concept that can be applied to many different things, but most notably for our purposes, your senses. Sight and sound both have a measurable dynamic range that we’re intuitively pretty familiar with.\n <\/figure>\n \n <\/figure>\n \nFor instance, in a really quiet room, you can hear the scratch of your pencil against the paper you’re writing on, but you can also hear the insanely loud screech of a group of fighter jets as they fly over your head. In terms of sight, you can navigate through a crowded beach on a bright sunny day and through a dimly lit theater as you head out for more popcorn.\n<\/p>
<\/span>Our Dynamic Range is Limited<\/span><\/h3>
\nThat being said, there are values that are beyond the natural dynamic range of our senses. If you turn down the dimmer switch in a room with no outside light, eventually, you’ll hit a point where you can’t see anything. The same thing happens on the opposite end of the spectrum when you look right at a bright light source such as the sun.\nJust like your eyes, your camera also has a dynamic range. This refers to the difference in value between the darkest darks and the lightest lights. And just like with your eyes, there’s a tradeoff at work. When your eyes or your camera adjust to perceive something really bright, they can no longer perceive darker values. Imagine walking into a dark room from the bright sunlight, it takes a minute to adjust!\nThis can make it pretty tricky to take photos in extreme lighting situations. On a bright sunny day, if you adjust your camera so that the shadows are properly exposed, you’ll blow the highlights! Similarly, if you expose for the bright sky, you lose detail in the shadows (this is how you get a silhouette shot).\n <\/figure>\n \n<\/p>
<\/span>Fantastic Technology<\/span><\/h3>
\nThe great thing about being a photographer today is that our technology allows us to push the bounds of the dynamic range that we’ve historically been able to achieve. High-tech camera sensors combined with post-processing software like Photoshop make it super easy to create beautifully bright and colorful photos with an impressive dynamic range.\n <\/figure>\n \nIn fact, many photographers push the limits of this technique and create surreal “HDR” (High Dynamic Range) scenes.\n <\/figure>\n \n<\/p>
<\/span>Why The Science Lesson?<\/span><\/h2>
\nThat long explanation of dynamic range may seem irrelevant to our pursuit of a vintage film look, but understanding these principles actually give us an important hint about how to achieve what we want. As it turns out, part of what makes film photos look “old” to our eyes is that many of these images have no where near the dynamic range that we’re used to seeing straight out of the camera today.\nIf you compare the aged photo style we’re going for with the HDR image above, you can see that it’s pretty much the exact opposite in terms of technique. Instead of increasing dynamic range, we need to decrease it!\n <\/figure>\n \n<\/p>
<\/span>“Crushing” The Black in Photoshop<\/span><\/h2>
![\"layers\"](\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/07\/28023518\/crushedblacks-1.jpg.webp\")
\nThis will bring up the Curves<\/strong> adjustment settings, which depicts a histogram and a diagonal line. The left side of the histogram represents the dark areas of the image, the right side represents the light areas of the image, and the diagonal line is the tool that you use to manipulate how bright\/dark different areas of the photo are. It seems a little intimidating at first, but if you play around with it for a minute, you’ll get the hang of it.\n![\"curves\"](\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/07\/28023521\/crushedblacks-2.jpg.webp\")
\nTo introduce some clipping in the dark areas, bring the leftmost point of the line slightly up (which increases the brightness of the dark areas) and to the right (which reduces the detail). If you wish, you can crush the white a little too by doing the inverse to the rightmost point. Here’s a comparison of the Curves<\/strong> panel before and after the adjustment.\n![\"curves\"](\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/07\/28023619\/crushedblacks-animated.gif.webp\")
\nThat’s all there is to it! Your photo should now have that film aesthetic you’ve been looking for. Wasn’t that easy?\n![\"curves\"](\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/07\/28023624\/crushedblacks-animated3.gif.webp\")
\n![\"layers\"](\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/07\/28023627\/crushedblacks-5.jpg.webp\")
\nHere’s what the before\/after looks like for this adjustment.\n![\"layers\"](\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/07\/28023631\/crushedblacks-6.jpg.webp\")
\n<\/p>