‘toy camera’
The
look is all the rage at the moment. It’s difficult to find a photography
blog that doesn’t contain some sort of nod to the cameras of yesteryear, and there are iPhone apps aplenty
dedicated to recreating that lo-fi retro feel. So in this Photoshop tutorial you will learn techniques, all
dedicated to recreating the look of cheap and cheerful plastic cameras, such as those made by Holga,
Diana, Lomo, and Lubitel.
Take a FUN photo, an expressive photo. Do not forget the importance of composition.
1. We’re going to start by applying the light
leak effect. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer
using the button at the bottom of the Layers
palette. Select Red from the drop-down
menu, instead of the default RGB; push the
top white slider to 200, and the black slider
on the bottom to 200.
2. Next select Blue from the drop-down
menu; move the black slider on the top to
100, and the white slider on the bottom to
150 to add yellow. The area containing the
light leak is normally a little faded, too, and
you can apply this fade effect with the same
Levels layer. Select RGB from the dropdown and move the black slider on the
bottom to 20.
3. Use the Gradient tool to suggest the light leak comes from a corner or
edge of the frame. Press G to access it, then pick the first icon in the
Options bar (Linear Gradient) and click the Gradient Picker drop-down. A
new options box appears; click the swatch Foreground to Background and
press Enter, then press D to reset the colour palette to white and black.
4. With the Levels Layer Mask active, click halfway
between the left edge and the nearest eye, drag right to
the nearest eye, then release. To come in from a corner instead, click from the equivalent halfway point
between the bottom-left corner and nearest eye, and
drag at 45 degrees up to the eye. You can reduce the
strength of the light leak by dropping layer opacity, or
increase it by duplicating the layer with Ctrl+J.
Gradient tool in tool bar.
Draw Gradient line
anyway you see fit.
5. Add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer. Adjust as
needed.
6. Now add a Levels Adjustment Layer on top for some
color work. Look to the right, your layers should look like
this!
Select the Blue channel in the Levels drop-down, move the
bottom black output slider to 60 and the white
output slider to 215. Duplicate background copy and go
to Filter>Blur>GaussianBlur and add 2-5 pixels Radius
to simulate softness. Finish by adding a little noise with
Filter>Noise>AddNoise; try 5 to 10% of Gaussian
Monochromatic noise.
Save as a .jpg
First name Toy Camera