Retro Film Look with a $40 Lens

I studied movies from the 70s to see how I could make my footage look retro.

Host and Creator - Simon Cade

[NicholasGarofola]

This feels like a classic DSLRguide video. Love seeing you post stuff like this Simon

[gssg]

Shallow depth of field was not the default technique back in the day. The included Taxi Driver clip is a good example of this.

[AlexeyYakushechkin]

One of the best vintage lenses. My father used it 40 years ago, and now I use it sometimes.

[TheNepaliComment]

Hello Simon, I was one of your regular follower in 2014 to 2017. I got into filmmaking because of your tutorials. I have now transitioned to different form of storytelling now but I stumbled upon your video once again on my homepage. It felt so good to see you again. I just went back in time when I used to take notes on every small details you said. Thank you so much Simon. Love from Nepal

[giodashorts]

The movie at 0:27 is not "Hero" but actually "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" from 2000.

[DangerousMuteLunatic]

The hard light stuff is great, that's the kind of lighting I imagine when someone says cinematic. It's unreal, it's purposeful, meant to tell a story. Soft light is spectacular for products and that kinda wispy, ethereal look a lot of people go for, but when I think of movies I want to watch I think shadows.

Love using the Helios 44-2

[DJTI]

YES! I love my old M42 mount photography lenses. Not only do I love the softer image and lower contrast, they are so easy to disassemble and modify. My next project is going to be building a Deakinizer for the dream sequence of a short film I'm working on.

[MrStronglime]

I dunno, to my eyes, it felt more correct before you did all the postprocessing. As soon as you added that, I subconciously knew it was an emulation of an older look. Probably the blur and glow.

[kereyvproductions]

These tutorials are so fun and insightful. Your images are charmingly soothing as well. Great work!!

[TK]

Another great video. Always have time for anyone who likes the retro film-look and your results are subtle and not over the top.
As much as I appreciate today's modern, ultra hi-res, ultra sharp digital camera tech, I will always have a soft spot for the retro film look - whether real or replicated - simply because I'm of an age where I saw Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and many more at the cinema the first time around.

[impatrickt]

Taxi driver and Jaws are gorgeous films.

[jfh]

0:27 This is from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon :)

[orestfilm]

Helios is a soviet copy of Carl Zeiss Biotar. I have a small collection of them. Thanks for the video!

[leokatzzz]

omg everytime you upload I get so happy

[filmdad]

Oh my Gosh Simon I miss these!!

Throw back throw back but grown up :)

I’m out of Film School, dropped out and now finally seeing my vision :)

Love you man!

[Lemonayde]

That outro shot and angle is great. I'll ✍🏽📝 that!

[oniriscope]

Looks good, can’t wait to see the music-video

[SovietLensReviews]

Gotta love the Helios 44! Your copy was made in the 70's - you can tell by the first two digits of the serial number. Personally, I liked the image before you double-blurred it in post with bloom+blur, but overall a great tutorial!

[YVZSTUDIOS]

I'm very impressed by the in-camera techniques and all (and yes, I also have a vintage lens and love the "foggy" contrast), but WHERE WAS THE *COLOR* GRADING? like yes, the effects were also very cool and I also use those + some others, but I did not see any alteration of the colors itself. Like the last key-step of this whole process is missing.

[emontie]

Cool results. I thought the references were a little muddied though. You condense films like If and Taxi Driver which were part of the new social realism style of the late 60s/70s with an an extremely artistic one like Apocalypse Now which had a very different and poetic lighting style even though it was a gritty war movie. I think the general appearance of those early 70s films you mentioned was to do with the way film stocks were faster, greater use of natural light and changes in storytelling cues from the glossier era that came before it.