To vintage, or not to vintage

When I was editing these photos in the weekend, something about this shot jumped out at me and screamed “make me vintage!”  Something to do with that teensy little girl and her sweet little feet dangling off the edge of the log, the matching dress & hat, just the whole feel.

Vintage is a thing right now though.  A look.  And it’s easy to get carried away and make all of our images all yellow and brown and then come back in ten years and wonder what on earth we were doing with all that newfangled 2009 technology to make it look we were stuck in 1974.  That warm, slightly desaturated and faded tone has a certain emotion to it, and creates an amazing mood.  The important bit is that it only does that on the right image.

When you should vintage:

• when you can imagine that one those vintage suitcasese or bikes could be inserted into the image and it would look completely normal
• when the image already has a strong mood of summer love/laughter at the beach/picnics in the park etc
• when it makes sense for the image to have a warm tone – i.e. don’t bother if it’s your skiing holiday
• when it looks okay on the subject – i.e. check to make sure the people in your shot don’t just look a little sunburnt once you’ve vintage’d them

When you shouldn’t vintage:

• when you think the photo’s boring and just want something to liven it up
• when you think the vintage might hide the fact that it’s just not that good a shot
• when you’re shooting for bright & bold – why bother vintaging a shot next to that amazing bright blue wall?