Tintype Photography

[vintage68]

I'm a big fan of tintype photography, or at least the look that can be duplicated to appear as tintype. I'm thinking of old west pictures of gunfighters and the like.

Does anyone know how one goes about getting this look with regular digital photography, like for instance through Photoshop or other methods of cheating? I understand that almost no one does real tintype anymore, and that "back in the day" it was pretty hazardous stuff.

 

[DJH]

I've played quite a bit to try and reproduce some of the old techniques in digital - not with the greatest of success.

If you use Photoshop, one of the best tools is Nik Software's Silver Efex plug-in. I use this for nearly all the black and white (and similar) images for our wedding clients. It includes a Tintype filter, which isn't too bad. Here's an example, without much in the way of tweaking - me by the Ben Franklin Bridge.

I'd probably reduce the contrast and add some grain to make it look more of an old photo, if that's what I was trying to achieve.

Oh, another set of plug-ins that would be interesting to try out is one called Virtual Photographer. I've not used this for a while, cos it's Windows only, but I bet you could use it to create a Tintype look.