Perhaps I’ve been looking at too many Civil War-era photographs of recent, but I’ve really been having fun playing with conversions to mimic the old Calotype prints of the mid-1800s.
The scratches and damage areas play a role in a successful conversion. Many of the photos you’ll see today will have those imperfections, but the trick is to make them look random when they are not. The same is true for the grain. Should be some, can’t be too much.
This is an image of my friend Angela from a couple of years back.
Sepia and a Calotype approach isn’t right for everything, but it’s a useful option in some cases.