Render a metallic monochrome plate
The filter converts the source to luminance, expands contrast around middle gray, and maps the result to a slightly warm silver tone. Tarnish darkens and colors the perimeter, while Vignette reduces edge exposure. Fine scratches use a seeded vertical pattern, narrow enough to read as plate damage rather than broad paper creases.
Daguerreotypes were direct positives on polished, silvered copper. They have no paper grain, which is why this filter leans on metallic contrast and edge oxidation instead of the dust-and-fiber damage used for old paper prints.
Portrait contrast
Front-lit portraits with a plain background resemble early plate photographs more closely than scenes with saturated color and deep focus. Raise Silver plate until facial planes separate, then add tarnish and vignette around the subject so the center stays cleanest, the way handled plates aged.
Strong silver contrast can clip bright skin or clothing. Lower Silver plate before reducing tarnish, because tarnish concentrates at the frame and does not restore center detail.
Example: family portrait restyle
For a modern portrait shot against a wall, a Silver plate value near 80 with Tarnish around 55 produces a plate that reads as period-correct at arm’s length. Keep Fine scratches under 35 for faces; scratch lines crossing an eye or mouth draw attention faster than the same damage over a jacket or backdrop.
Try 3 or 4 seeds at fixed settings and pick the arrangement whose scratches fall away from the subject. The seed changes only placement, never the amount of damage.
Where the effect stops
The filter reproduces surface qualities, not optics. It does not add the shallow focus, long-exposure stillness, or mirror-like flip of a real plate, and it cannot invent period clothing or lighting. The closer the source already is to a seated, evenly lit portrait, the less work the damage controls have to do.