What should I dial in to my D5100 to get this old-time look

To have any chance of re-creating that look in a straight-out-of-camera, you'll need to use a custom preset. Are you familiar with the Nikon Picture Control Utility? It allows you to create custom Picture Controls and load them into the camera.

Bobthearch said:

To have any chance of re-creating that look in a straight-out-of-camera, you'll need to use a custom preset. Are you familiar with the Nikon Picture Control Utility? It allows you to create custom Picture Controls and load them into the camera.

Click to expand...

I'm not but that sounds promising, and I'm a techie so no trouble doing it. Do you have to pay? What adjustments should I do to get that look?

The Name is Bond said:

Bobthearch said:

To have any chance of re-creating that look in a straight-out-of-camera, you'll need to use a custom preset. Are you familiar with the Nikon Picture Control Utility? It allows you to create custom Picture Controls and load them into the camera.

Click to expand...

I'm not but that sounds promising, and I'm a techie so no trouble doing it. Do you have to pay?

Click to expand...

The Picture Control Utility is bundled with View NX-i, Nikon's free desktop software for viewing, transferring, and converting nef files.

The Name is Bond said:

What adjustments should I do to get that look?

Click to expand...

Now that, I can't say.

Look for a converter or instructions for Kodak Gold film. VSCO makes one. I don’t know if that is Kodak in the photo but it’d be the look you want.

There has to be many free apps that will give you that "Kodachrome" look.

One I'm aware of is the old Picasa app. It's no longer supported since Google bought it, but it's free, available for download and easy to use. It has quite a few filters and effects including one called "1960's". You can dial in just how much of the effect you want with a slider control. Here's a before and after with a "medium" application of the effect...









There are also literally dozens of plug-ins for Photoshop that will produce similar effects.

The Name is Bond said:

Bobthearch said:

To have any chance of re-creating that look in a straight-out-of-camera, you'll need to use a custom preset. Are you familiar with the Nikon Picture Control Utility? It allows you to create custom Picture Controls and load them into the camera.

Click to expand...

I'm not but that sounds promising, and I'm a techie so no trouble doing it. Do you have to pay? What adjustments should I do to get that look?

Click to expand...

Regarding adjustments, IMHO, I think is best to keep everything neutral, it will give you more freedom for doing what you seek in editing.

I did these in gimp.













I'm very happy with the end result, to me seems like the picture of the box where the camera came out from, or a magazine's car advertisement back in the day

But I can't say the same about these ones. There's something lacking















I only wish I could do the same to every photo, but it's a very fiddly business, from what I remember...

play with:

saturation (often low)

Brightness/contrast ( a dull image)

colour balance (slightly predominant redish, blueish or yellowish )

levels and colour curve

the example you gave was more cold looking than mine (more warm) but there's a lot of different kinds of film that you can try go for.

If you don't have material to look seek lomography gallery/photos (they still use film) or an old magazine.

Either way, this is the closest I could get

The Name is Bond said:

Bobthearch said:

To have any chance of re-creating that look in a straight-out-of-camera, you'll need to use a custom preset. Are you familiar with the Nikon Picture Control Utility? It allows you to create custom Picture Controls and load them into the camera.

Click to expand...

What adjustments should I do to get that look?

Click to expand...

Clearly warmer tones, (white balance) and softer sharpening in the camera would give you a start. You may have to just play with the settings until you get the ones you are after. The old trial and error, (which by the way, is much cheaper with digital cameras). LOL.

Good luck.

Haha!

guys, I'm asking for in-camera adjustments, not gimp etc.

Appreciate the ideas though.

Major Jack Reacher said:

The Name is Bond said:

Bobthearch said:

To have any chance of re-creating that look in a straight-out-of-camera, you'll need to use a custom preset. Are you familiar with the Nikon Picture Control Utility? It allows you to create custom Picture Controls and load them into the camera.

Click to expand...

What adjustments should I do to get that look?

Click to expand...

Clearly warmer tones, (white balance) and softer sharpening in the camera would give you a start. You may have to just play with the settings until you get the ones you are after. The old trial and error, (which by the way, is much cheaper with digital cameras). LOL.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I guessed that but because my eyes can't see colours well I get lost as to what more to do. I haven't really been able to replicate that look with just warming and unsharpening.

If you like the look of any of these there's a way to download them and get them into your camera, but I haven't done it.

https://nikonpc.com/

The Name is Bond said:

Haha!

guys, I'm asking for in-camera adjustments, not gimp etc.

Appreciate the ideas though.

Click to expand...

In that case I would use Nikon's NX-i software and then replicate the settings in the camera once you find what works. Whatever you do in the software should be exactly what the camera does if you tweaked the same settings on both sides. I have a feeling it will be hard to do, but easier to do on a computer than trial and error with the camera.

Greg