Need Help Please! Any Ideas on How I Could Make this Look More Realistic??

AlphaProject10 · May 4, 2010

hey guys..

so i saw this picture (not created by me):

and was inspired to give a "film " border to my photos

this is what i have so far (created by me):

i am not entirely satisfied w/ how the border looks...i dont feel like it looks realistic...

i plan on making a collage like the photo above so i was thinking the number on the film strip needs to change as well as some other aesthetic improvements that could probably either be made in photoshop or with a better film strip stock image...

i extracted the border from this image

so my question is

1.) does anyone on here have a better image of a "film strip" that i could use in my pictures? maybe one that is more detailed higher resolution etc.

2.) any other ideas on how i could make the whole film strip theme more realistic?

thanks

malicho · May 4, 2010

why not just make your own real quick instead of take it off another film strip? use helvetica, mask a light texture over it (lostandtaken.com has great light textures) and then slightly blur the text.

malicho · May 4, 2010

i did a quick example a bit ago, if you'd like step by step (adding film strip would be easy if you wanted that). here's the example:

http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/bbollig/?action=view&current=example.jpg

mikka · May 4, 2010

AlphaProject10 said:
1.) does anyone on here have a better image of a "film strip" that i could use in my pictures? maybe one that is more detailed higher resolution etc.

I might be able to dig up some old scans. Should be able to get 120 rollfilm too, similar to what your original find uses. What sort of resolution are you looking for?

2.) any other ideas on how i could make the whole film strip theme more realistic?

The pics you found are on colour reversal film, not B&W, which is the main reason your colour rough looks 'wrong'. If you coloured the text it would likely be better straight away. Personally, I'd do that or look at generating my own edge print, per the reply above, largely because you get to format the image the way you like, any size you like, without the brand placement, etc.

Another 'realism' issue is that a camera gate never produces a perfect, sharply-defined border like that; there's always a slightly defocussed/rough transience into the exposed film emulsion, especially on 35mm. This is another reason I'd think twice about 'genuine' film edges, cos if you're as picky as me you'd spend ages working-in a similar colour/tone along those transients...

Let me know if you still want to try out some scans though.

AlphaProject10 · May 4, 2010

malicho said:
i did a quick example a bit ago, if you'd like step by step (adding film strip would be easy if you wanted that). here's the example:

example.jpg picture by bbollig - Photobucket

YES!! can u pls provide me a step by step as to how u did that??

but wait im kind of confused

isn't this the same exact film border as seen here:

you created the first picture from scratch?? the slightly cut off text, the arrow, the numbers etc. everythnig is the same...huh im confused lol

AlphaProject10 · May 4, 2010

mikka said:
I might be able to dig up some old scans. Should be able to get 120 rollfilm too, similar to what your original find uses. What sort of resolution are you looking for?

YES! if u could do that, it would be awesome, i would like as high resolution as possible. so whatever u have would be great

The pics you found are on colour reversal film, not B&W, which is the main reason your colour rough looks 'wrong'. If you coloured the text it would likely be better straight away

is there a way i could color the text or would i have to create it from scratch?

Personally, I'd do that or look at generating my own edge print, per the reply above, largely because you get to format the image the way you like, any size you like, without the brand placement, etc.

if either you or malicho could do a step by step as to how i could create my own edge print that would be AWESOME

Another 'realism' issue is that a camera gate never produces a perfect, sharply-defined border like that; there's always a slightly defocussed/rough transience into the exposed film emulsion, especially on 35mm.

YES!! how would i fray/rough up the edges in my original photo. i can do that in photoshop right but what feature would i use? (sorry im a newbie)

Let me know if you still want to try out some scans though.

yes i do if you have any scans it would be greatly appreciatd!

malicho · May 4, 2010

yeah, i created that from scratch, the font used is helvetica, mine has slightly less leading if you look closely (the text doesn't match theirs exactly) but i was giving you a rough idea. if you want a step by step i could give you that, and i could show you how to make t more realistic, as mikka was saying.

AlphaProject10 · May 4, 2010

malicho said:
yeah, i created that from scratch, the font used is helvetica, mine has slightly less leading if you look closely (the text doesn't match theirs exactly) but i was giving you a rough idea. if you want a step by step i could give you that, and i could show you how to make t more realistic, as mikka was saying.

WOW! u even re-created the yellow blue to the left of the image to a t!!!

yes please give me a step by step asap

i would really appreciate it!!