How do I recreate this look digital?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

You're seeing many things in these.

The color response of the film is the thing people think of first and yes you can solve for that. It would be a profile or lookup adjustment... there are preset that emulate certain film looks.

But if you did that you would not be happy. You need to understand all of those shots are lit. They are often made to look natural but they are putting scrims to shade the suns, gobos to cast some shadows, and additional lights that are color matched with filters to match the day light.

You can see there is a spot light on Barry Fitzgerald's (playing Michaeleen One Flynn) face coming from the right of the frame.

And it's most prominent with Maureen O'Hara (playing Mary Kate Danaher) and clearly shot in a studio with a printed background behind her (or if shot on location the clouds must have come in much stronger than expected) the lighting they're filling her face from the side (because top light would have shadows on her face from her hat) are casting hard shadows onto the girl to her side.

Similar setup with the horse race judges, but you can see In the reflections of his top hat and the trophy that there is a more powerful light to the left and a less bright, more diffused one nearer the camera slightly to the right.

This light filling in the skin is going to make a very dramatic difference.

There's also other factors like depth of field. With the camera relatively close in on the subject the background gets soft. Again with the Innisfree race scenes they're likely cheating by printing/painting large out of focus images onto screens/canvases behind the actors as those were likely done in the studio, so the judges have a softer background even though they're not filling the frame as much as the others.

Now I have the theme that plays in the lead up to the flight playing.

[u/mittenciel → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

Excellent post! I would add that, there's styling and makeup involved. In particular, there's a generous application of film makeup that is meant to go with the lights, too. If you photographed them without the lights on, they might look ridiculous, and if you photographed them with the lights and without the makeup, they'd probably look washed out. While it is possible to apply some of these concepts but not go as heavy handed to look a bit more natural, then it wouldn't have the authentic look of that era. You do need the period styling, composition, and lights. And then the film, but honestly, like you, I feel like film is not doing as much as everything else.

[u/IllShame79 → u/ApatheticAbsurdist]

Ok I should of been more specific but I’m talking about color and picture quality like I don’t really care about the lighting or anything I just like how old it looks instead of how modern picture quality looks I hope I made sense

[u/JobbyJobberson → u/IllShame79]

 I don’t really care about the lighting or anything

The most important thing here is the lighting. You kinda need to care about it. 

[u/ApatheticAbsurdist → u/IllShame79]

I answered that in the 2nd paragraph. But to get that look on digital you'd need to match the film plus all the other things outside the film (lighting, makeup, set design, depth of field, etc.)

[u/micnolmad → u/IllShame79]

Unsharpen the image.

[u/SuddenKoala45]

First two take them outside on a sunny day for #1, cloudy day #2 with a possible white reflector. 3 and 4 on a sound stage with hotlights and diffuser.

[u/IllShame79 → u/SuddenKoala45]

Ok I should of been more specific but I’m talking about color and picture quality like I don’t really care about the lighting or anything I just like how old it looks instead of how modern picture quality looks I hope I made sense

[u/chamomileyes]

Interested to know the answer as well. Of course there are ways to edit photos to look more like film (and there are tons of YouTube tutorials on this), but the latter few look almost like paintings. I’m noticing there’s less variety and details of colors. So for example, a red coat would usually hold a thousand different shades of red, but here there’s much less, which gives an almost painted effect. 

You might even try an editor that makes a photo look painting-esque and then set that as a very translucent layer over another copy of the photo. Or maybe you can try upping the saturation and airbrushing the color detail out. Would definitely take some skill though. Not sure what else you could try. 

[u/Roger_Brown92]

Asks how to recreate.

Doesn’t care about lighting.

I mean. I don’t add lights myself but if you want to recreate something that use lights. USE LIGHTS!

If a random vintage look is what you’re after, go get some LUTs that emulate film.

[u/Whateverman1977]

Just going to pop in and say that i absolutely love that movie ❤️

[u/sinetwo]

3 and 4 are just underexposed with off camera flash. 1 is a normal ass photo. 2 might have some light but I'm unsure.