I got an idea to try and put some modern military hardware, tanks, apc’s and so on into old photos, for example an Abrams tank on a WW2 picture, modern soldiers fighting in Stalingrad and stuff like that.
Pictures then didn’t have pixels, so how do I make modern HD pictures feel more in line with the old ones, do I make them a little blurry, add some filters or what?
Alien Skin Exposure is a great program/plugin, but it isn’t a cheap one. You can get a 30 day free trial, though. (Other options here, but Exposure is the only one I’m familiar with.)
Just do a Google search for vintage color fad filters.
It’s not that simple: see https://www.cs.jhu.edu/~misha/Fall07/Papers/Perez03.pdf , http://graphics.cs.cmu.edu/courses/15-463/2010_spring/Lectures/blending.pdf
I agree. It can be easy to slap something together and have your friends laugh and say “Dude, you put a tank at The Battle of Hastings!”. But it’s time-consuming (and takes the eye of an artist and the skill of a computer whiz) to make it believable.
I’ve been doing stuff like that since the 70s (OMG, before Photoshop!), and I’m still stymied sometimes. Some tanks just won’t look right in some battles, no matter how much time and software I use.
eta: A thorough understanding of the physics of light, and how photography works, will help a lot. If you have a photo background, you’ll have a head start.