Tank factories of the Second World War, 1940-1945

From: http://rarehistoricalphotos.com

The story of the tank began in World War I, when armoured all-terrain fighting vehicles were first deployed as a response to the problems of trench warfare. In Britain, tanks were first referred to as landships. The Landships Committee was set up in 1915 by Winston Churchill to develop designs. To conceal their true purpose from possible spies, they were called tanks, to give the impression of simple water tanks. The name stuck.

See link to article here

Rare Historical Photos

A great website containing rare and historical photos.

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com

 

 

Tips for Becoming a Vintage Photography Expert

by dslrshots

Vintage style photography has seen a surge in popularity among hobbyist photographers. And thanks to photography social networking sites like Flickr, sharing of photographs in the vintage style is easier than ever.



Users even share their post production ‘recipes’ and techniques to help you form your own ideas and techniques if you’re interested in producing photographs in the vintage syle. A quick search on Flickr brings up 61,000+ images of and 2,000+ groups dedicated to the vintage style. Here are six tips for capturing a bit of vintage of your own – or as I call it, ‘vintifying’.

1. Levels

The vintage style has everything to do with colour and saturation. Old photos aren’t vivid. There are many ways to tweak levels in post production to achieve a vintage feel.

Contrast

The first of these is the contrast – toning down your contrast to create a “flatter” feel. There are differens ways to change contrast in Photoshop. You can select Layer > New adjustment layer > Levels, or see the below images:

Enhance

Another way to play with your photo is in Enhance > Adjust color > Color variations. You’ll see a host of options for playing with your image. Generally I like to enhance contrast by bumping up the highlights by two clicks and the shadows by one. But here, we’re lowering contrast so just do the opposite!

Another way is Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast. This will add a transparent adjustment layer and give you two sliders on the right to adjust until you’re happy. The great thing about using adjustment layers instead of directly changing the image as in the screen shots above, is that you can then mask out parts of the image you don’t want affected or delete the
adjustments alltogether.

Saturation

Bump down your saturation. As we mentioned before, old photos aren’t vivid. Just like in the above tip for using an adjustment layer to change contrast, you can make one to
adjust color hue and saturation.

Black and White

There’s so much more to black and white than just hitting the grayscale button. Basic grayscale or monocrome is a good place to start, but tweak the underlying blues, reds, greens and contrast to make it more believable.

Look at some old photos in real life and online to get a sense for what film black and white photos actually look like before trying to ‘vintify’ your own. There are the usual ways of changing an image to monocrome (e.g. Enhance > Convert to black and white) but they don’t make for a very believable image.

I’m fairly against the run-of-the-mill “one click” grayscale buttons. By all means, click them and then adjust the contrast, use texture layers etc. to make a custom black and white that’s just right for your image.

2. Lightroom Presets

There are a great many photographers who share their presets for free or a nominal price which you can use as a springboard for your own vintage style images.

3. Textures

Another post production method for vintifying your images is using texture layers. Do you have old photos from your grandma’s attic, or a handful that you picked up at a thrift shop? Study the textures. Look at the edges, the water spots, the age spots and dust. Old photos tell a story in so many more ways than just the image itself. Maybe your grandad accidentally put his coffee cup down on the family photo. Pay attention to the damage that time does to old images and experiment with texture layers to achieve warm, rich textures which you can practically feel. This tutorial by Phototuts’ own Andrew Gibson will tell you exactly how to edit using texture layers. I regularly use textures by Florabella Collection and Flypaper Textures. In my experince, Florabella is great for people while the Flypaper Textures are outstanding for landscapes but of course, the sky is the limit when using textures!

4. Content

It goes without saying that a photo of the latest Ford car isn’t going to look vintage no matter what you do in post production. It’s clearly from this day and age. Pay attention to the images you are seeking to vintify and be sure that the subject matter is conducive to the vintage style. A couple of great ways to achieve vintage content is to seek out: old cars, vintage clothing for your children, rustic locations, antique furniture or vintage, recognisable and branded paraphernalia like Coke bottles.

5. Scanning

Don’t have images you feel inspired to vintify? Why not scan an actual photo from the past and edit it?

6. New old

A quirky little sidestep from vintage style photography is what I call “new old” vintage. That is, photos which are clearly from this day, utilizing vivid, saturated colours and studio lighting but entirely fabricated to look old with props, makeup and subject matter.

Try it Yourself!

The vintage style is so popular these days that I really try to be careful to separate myself from everyone else and not do it the same way. As with any style or trend in photography, there is always room for individuality. Study the thousands and thousands of examples out there and start playing around to find what really works for you.

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Open Photography Exhibition

Opening Reception: Sunday, November 5, 2017. Noon - 3pm

Artist Talk: Sunday, November 5, 2017 , 2:30 pm

Exhibition continues: November 11, 12, 2017 from 11am-3pm

Join us in November as the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center celebrates photography with an Open Photography Exhibit. Photographs will include images made by members such as Ron Howard and  Leah Macdonald, Karen Elliot and many more. Plus we have invited special guests, Don Camera, Ryan Greenberg, Robert Asman, Julia Lehman and Kevin Martini Fuller. Don Camera is our speaker the the opening reception and he will share insights on his career as a photography historian and collector of vintage photographs. He is going to share many of his vintage pieces from his collection they are mostly landscapes and early examples of idealism. The show opens on November 5, 12-3pm with Don"s special talk at 2:30pm. The show will also be open November 11, 12 from 11 am - 3pm.

Photo Paris Vintage Fair

In Paris, at Pavillon Wagram, it is organized on 12 November 2017 a new fair dedicated to vintage photography.

The fair is open to dealers and collectors, with free entrance.

http://www.photoparisvintagefair.fr/

How to master black and white photography

By Chris Rutter January 09, 2017How To 

It"s not all black and white

In this black and white photography tutorial, we"ll show you how to choose your subjects, set up your camera and how simple but effective adjustments in Photoshop can make your images stand out.

Converting an image to black and white is pretty simple, but if you want truly impressive results it pays to think about how and what you shoot, and learn how to use your photo editing software"s powerful tools to get the most from your shots.

Along with our best black and white photography tips, we"ll reveal how to get creative with high-contrast graphic compositions and create moody landscapes, and show you how dramatic high- and low-key effects can be used to transform your still life photography and portrait photography

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East Tennessee History Fair

Join the East Tennessee Historical Society on Saturday, August 19, for an one-of-a-kind celebration of our region"s history! Participants representing the people, places, and events that shaped our past spill out of the East Tennessee History Center and fill downtown Knoxville, making history truly come alive!

Walk the East Tennessee Timeline, replete with re-enactors interpreting time periods from early settlement to the Vietnam War. Participate in hands-on activities that keep cherished crafts alive. Board a bus and tour Knoxville"s historic homes. Sit a spell in front of the Main Stage, listening to traditional music that has long been the soundtrack to our lives. All for FREE!

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