Tintype Video Effect

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Give a clip the look of a wet plate from the 1850s to the 1880s. Three things separate the plate from a plain black and white conversion, and the effect does each on every frame: the blue-biased response of the emulsion, highlights that stop at silver on a dark plate, and the surface of a hand-poured plate.

One plate, many frames

A real plate held one exposure. Here the plate is fixed and the picture moves: the pour edges, the drying marks and the specks stay in the same place for the whole clip, and only the image changes. Motion is the thing that breaks the illusion most, since plates needed seconds of exposure, so slow, steady shots read best.

Blue sensitivity, contrast and tone

Blue sensitivity blends from a standard luminance at 0 to the collodion response at 100, where skies blow out and red goes dark. Contrast sets the gain around the dark pivot of the plate; highlights stop at a cream silver with a gentle sheen. Tone moves the plate from cool blue-grey silver to warm brown.

Pour edges, drying marks and falloff

Pour edges sets how far the bare plate reaches in from the corners, with a milky thinning and a bright rim before the metal. Drying marks adds mottling, streaks and specks. Edge falloff softens the focus and darkens the plate away from the centre, as period lenses did.

Cost

About a quarter of a second per 720p frame on a laptop core. Set the export size before exporting a long clip at 4K.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the tintype video effect do?

Every frame is converted the way a wet plate recorded it: through an emulsion that saw blue and almost no red, so skies go pale and lips, freckles and warm skin go dark. Highlights stop at a cream silver, the shadows are the dark plate, and the corners thin out to bare metal. The plate's marks and pour edges are fixed, so the clip plays on one plate.

Why does red clothing go black?

Collodion emulsions were sensitive to blue and ultraviolet light and nearly blind to red, which is why period portraits show dark lips and freckles and washed-out skies. Blue sensitivity sets how far the conversion follows that response.

Do the marks move between frames?

No. The pour edges, mottling, streaks and specks belong to the plate, not the exposure, so they hold still while the picture moves. Only the image changes from frame to frame.

What happens to the audio?

It is copied into the export unchanged when the container can hold its codec, and re-encoded when it cannot. A note under the export button says which happened.

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Tintype and Wet Plate Effect

Render a photo as a wet plate collodion positive: a blue-sensitive emulsion that blows out skies and darkens lips and freckles, cream silver highlights on a dark plate, bare corners where the collodion was poured, drying marks and specks.

Daguerreotype Video Effect

Render a video as a silver daguerreotype plate: high-contrast warm monochrome, tarnished edges, a vignette, and fine scratches that change on every frame. Set silver plate, tarnish, scratches, and vignette. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Cyanotype Video Effect

Print every frame of a video as a cyanotype: Prussian blue shadows, pale paper highlights, and a fixed paper texture of stains and fibre. Set pigment color, exposure, contrast, and depth. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Film Stock Video Emulator

Grade a video to one of seventeen named film stocks, including Portra 400, Kodachrome 64, Velvia 50, CineStill 800T, and Tri-X 400, with grain that moves on every frame and trims for exposure, contrast, grain, and halation. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

LCD Screen Video Effect

Show a clip on a flat LCD panel seen up close: a grid of cells with red, green and blue sub-pixel stripes, backlight bleed in the corners, an off-axis wash and a few stuck pixels, fixed across the frames. Exports with the original soundtrack.

Expired Film Video Effect

Age a video like expired color film: shadows and highlights drift to opposite casts, blacks fog up, the emulsion mottles, and grain moves on every frame. Set degradation, crossover, fog, mottling, and grain. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Aerochrome Video Effect

Give a video the false-color infrared look of Kodak Aerochrome: green foliage turns red or magenta while skies stay blue, with film grain that moves on every frame. Set profile, intensity, foliage, and red bloom. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.