Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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How were professional photos edited in the 70s-80s (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by paint3dbird@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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was looking at some old photos of Kate bush, Stevie Nicks, and some other celebrities photoshoots from that time period and admiring the glowy affect or the purple and red colour palette on the photos wondering how I can achieve that same effect and then I realized that they did not have online editing software or even internet but the photos still look very nice and not like raw images I usually see. This may be a dumb question, I am not a photographer and do not know much about all this stuff but I am just curious.

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[–] TinfoilCamera@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

In addition to what has already been mentioned: Have you ever heard someone mention that an image looks like it was "airbrushed" ?

Today the word is "photoshopped" but Back In The Days the meaning was the same - used to describe an image that appears to have been overly manipulated in post.

They used to literally spray paint the master.

Look at any of the old propaganda photos from Germany in the late 30s and early 40s, because they in particular were really heavy-handed with it.

https://cdn.britannica.com/13/11413-050-75DC0AD1/Hermann-Goring-Storm-Troopers-1933.jpg

The technique was used (and improved/refined) all the way up to the digital age. Any of the old magazine advertisements from the 70s & 80s - especially any kind of hair care or make-up products used it extensively.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/62/28/e9/6228e989947af398d362d574c2df892c.jpg

[–] Dapper-Palpitation90@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I learned something new today.

[–] Too-Much_Too-Soon@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Here's a NSFW factoid too.

Men's magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse, in order to meet the strict censorship guidelines of the day where women were not allowed to have visible genitalia, would use this literal airbrush editing technique to make certain body parts (almost) Barbie-Doll smooth. Which probably led to a whole generation or two of men growing up with a poor understanding of female anatomy.