Nostalgifying Portraits with Sepia

Toning is a method of changing the colour of black-and-white photographs. In analog photography, it is a chemical process carried out on silver-based photographic prints. Most toners work by replacing the metallic silver in the emulsion with a silver compound, such as silver sulphide in the case of classic sepia toning, which gives a black-and-white photographic print a brownish, "warmer" tone and enhances its archival qualities. Beginning in the 1880s, sepia tone was originally produced by adding a pigment made from the Sepia cuttlefish to the positive print of a photograph taken with any number of negative processes. Nowadays, toning can be simulated digitally, either in-camera or in post-processing. The in-camera effect often uses just a simple tint. More sophisticated software like Adobe's Photoshop tends to implement sepia tones using its duotone feature.

Sepia photography has been popular among portrait photographers for years. In terms of design, a sepia tone is a classic/vintage photo effect and can give an older, aged or worn look to most portrait photographs. Sepia triggers a nostalgic feeling and makes a modern portrait look like an instant classic (especially in combination with a subtle, almost subliminal black retro vignette)...

"Each of us chooses the tone for telling his or her own story. I would like to choose the durable clarity of a platinum print, but nothing in my destiny possesses the luminosity. I live among diffuse shadings, veiled mysteries, uncertainties; the tone of telling my life is closer to that of a portrait in sepia..."

(Isabel Allende: Portrait in Sepia)

"Choosing sepia is all to do with trying to make the image look romantic and idealistic.

It's sort of a soft version of propaganda."

(Acc. to Martin Parr)

One last thing: genuine sepia photographs taken at the end of the 19th century and early into the 20th rarely show people smiling. Faces were held as still and straight as ramrods. Subjects had to keep their faces motionless for lengthy periods because the slightest movement would cause the image to blur. That's why it's not a good idea to convert contemporary portraits with smiling faces into sepia; it'll look somewhat incongruent and fake:

More blog entries about editing street portraits:

• Post-processing Street Portraits,
• Converting Colour to Greyscale,
• Pictorialising China’s Traditions,
• Grabbing Attention with Focal B&W.

Sporting a Pious Beard

Facial hair is hair grown on the chin, cheeks, and upper lip region, and it’s not something to trifle with. However, beards and moustaches are a vestigial trait from a time when humans had hair on their face and entire body. Interestingly enough, some faiths require the removal of facial hair whilst others do not. Many religions do encourage or require their men to grow and keep beards.
Why do God and his (!) servants like facial hair so much? Maybe because it’s supposed to represent manliness, virility and power since it’s an important secondary sex characteristic of the human male...

(i) Sikhism has considered a full beard to be absolutely essential for all males able to grow one, and mandate it as part of their official dogma. Sikhs believe that hair is a natural form as created by God. As a result, cutting hair is forbidden in Sikhism for those who have taken the amrit initiation ceremony. Hair is part of god’s creation to Sikhs, and is therefore sacred. Sikhs believe honouring God includes never shearing any hair on their body. Doing so would mar the perfection of God’s creation, they believe.

(ii) In Islam, the Quran does not prescribe beards for Muslims, but the hadith (the collected sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) describes Muhammad as ordering his followers to wear beards: “Differ from the polytheists: let your beard (grow), and trim your moustache,” the hadith reads. Trimming the moustache is considered to be a sunnah and mustahabb, that is, a way of life that is recommended, especially among Sunni Muslims.

(iii) In Hinduism, many sadhus have long beards, as they are not permitted to own anything, which would include a razor. The scruffy, unkempt beard is also a sign of their nomadic and ascetic lifestyle.

(iv) The male members of the Rabari people, a pastoralist community and scheduled tribe in the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, grow friendly mutton chops and mighty (handlebar) moustaches. They take great pride in their facial hair; in fact it is the fountain hood of their very maleness and a mark of their virility. The Rabari myth of origin is that Shiva put them on earth to tend to the camels owned by Parvati. Their religion is often a mix of Hinduism and Animism.

(v) In (Theravada) Buddhism, monks follow the vinaya rules about hair and always completely shave their head and beard, showing their commitment to the holy/monastic life. The monastic ordination ceremonies of all schools of Buddhism include head shaving; the beard is perceived as an unnecessary feature and is also removed.

 
High-res portrait photographs with full exif data, precise geotags and technical details in Matt Hahnewald's
Flickr Album 2017-02a Establishing Rapport in Ahmedabad
Flickr Album 2016-11b Absorbing Orissa's Ethnic Mosaic
Flickr Album 2016-11a Rocking the Rickshaw in Calcutta
Flickr Album 2016-02b Rambling Around Arunachala Hill
Flickr Album 2014-12b Dyeing with Dignity and Henna