Vintage Golden Gate

Sepia Gate Bridge

Though I only show usually three photos a week on here I work on a lot more. Usually I have an idea as to what I want the finished photo to look like, but sometimes I go into working on a photo with no real idea on what I want. I went into Black & White Effects wanting to get a dramatic look, but the overall flatness of the image (it was a cloudy, surprise, and dull looking day) wasn't helping things out. So then I thought I'd just play around with the image and see what I could do.

First thing to do was to bring in a sepia tone to the image. This is a light yellowish tone that often makes a photo look old or vintage. I don't get to often play with sepia toning because my black & white group is/was kind of strict about what makes a black & white photo. Which, now that I think of it, makes sense; sepia toned shots probably fall under the category of monochrome. So after sepia-ing it up I felt that the charm of the bridge was missing. So I used the brush to paint back in the color on the red bridge parts. I don't normally like doing a color reveal in monochrome shots, but I felt it worked ok because the toning was a yellow tone and the red would at least stay in the same warm color tones. It does make the bridge pop, but that's sort of the point. Then to finish it up I did another thing I don't normally like doing, I added grain. Lots of it. Maybe too much. I think the grain adds to the vintage feel of the photo though. The only thing I wish I had thought of before leaving the program was to add a nice vintage border to the shot. Overall though I quite like this.