What filter can I use for a B&W shot to look 1950 ish?
 

Good afternoon!
I have CS5. I would like to take a clip, turn it to Black and White and add a filter to make it look a little bit older, like it was shot back in the 50's. Can anyone tell me what effect or filter to use in Premiere or After Effects? I have some experience with both.

Thank you,
Art

Hi Art. In AE or Premiere have a try with Tint, Noise (you have to set amount) and Shadow/Highlights. There's also Dust & Scratches (and maybe even create a vignette) if you want to go the whole hog. Hope that helps.

I checked into Dust & Scratches... it's actually designed to remove them, not add them in....

Either use the image filters as mentioned above or invest in Magic Bullet or Boris Continuum

Hi Adam, yes you are absolutely right it is designed to remove them but if you add them after the other effects it brings a bit of a soft bloom to the image.That's my story anyway:-)

Yeah, that makes sense.

But that raises an interesting question. I assumed that Art wants it to look old and degraded, but actually many of the older B&W films (especially from the 30s and 40s) were shot on Nitrate stock, which gave this incredible crisp, clear, deep, sharp image. Not degraded or soft at all. So that would require exactly the opposite treatment of what I was first thinking of.

All good things to try. I wanted to practice but I didn't know where to start and what order. I have a scene where employees of a company are drab, malcontent and wearing outdated clothes. By the end, they are happy, productive and modern, like a before and after. These ideas will help visually show the difference, hopefully in a humorous way. I'll play around with these. Thanks for helping!

Art

Have used Natress plugins for a few years now and there are a lot of great film looks. I find most of them too subtle in a comedic setting but there are a few that are dead on for 8mm film degradation looks. Might fit the bill but not sure if they are available for Adobe as I use them in FCP.
Agree that well-shot 16mm and larger film from the 50's looks fantastic when it's been cared for and properly transferred.

+1 on Magic Bullet Looks for this. You can add and vary the degree of dust, scratches, spots, gate weave and grain. It can look very close to vintage if you spend some time with it. The trick is not to over do any of these if you want it to look authentic. Along with that though you may wish to play with exposure and filters to emulate the film stock qualities of the day. There was a variety of quality just as is there is today but you can keep it razor sharp like a good film noir crime drama or soften it up and blow out the highlights for something that looks a little more low budget from the era. Lots of fun whatever you choose to do......
If you don't have a lot of this vintage work filed away in your head already just watch a lot and find looks that appeal to you.

Ok.
Robert, I quickly looked but I don't think Natress works with Adobe. Thanks anyway. Steve, at my age, everything stored away in my head is vintage! Looks like it's working with a little bit of noise in Premiere.

LOL, you're not alone there Art!

Have a look here: AnyFX Effects & Transitions for Premiere and Vegas | Pixelan Software

Any FX has a number of presets for different film stock, like various photographic film rolls from Agfa, Fuji and Kodak that allow an easy way to simulate old B&W photos. For $ 29 it is peanuts.

Not bad! and the examples they give are nice too.
Art

I hasn't been mentioned yet but Cineform's First Light has some really nice black and white and old film effects. This would be my choice for a project like this.