Hi,
I was trying to render a realistic scene with an old camera look, so I rendered it with just a few samples to make it look noisy intentionnaly. Do you think this image looks like an old photo or not? Do you have any feedback?
Hi, I think you could improve a few things :
I guess the picture format is 16:9 (or 9:16 as this is a vertical image), a “modern” ratio, which couldn’t be done with an old camera. I’m pretty sure the “classic” photo format is 3:2 or 1,5, so that could be a start so that the picture would be more believable.
You could also add some vignette (I think it’s the right term) in the compositing stage, because all camera, and especially old ones create some vignette (borders of the photo are darker), which is an optical flaw.
That was only a few advices on the technical aspect, I hope it can help.
depending on how old …
4x5 inch glass plates or 8 x 10 inch glass plates were used
or daguerreotype on a silvered glass or metal plate
4x5 and 2x3 are common ratio sizes
now as to the image
warning - i was a photo lab tech from the 80’s and 90’s doing custom color and B&W hand enlarging
other than too tall the composition is not bad ( just remove a bit of the top of the image )
the tone range is mostly good but a bit too dark
also look up " zone system" by the photographer "Ansel Adams "
an example
http://www.alanrossphotography.com/category/anseladams/
the same image processed in two ways
or this
http://people.csail.mit.edu/soonmin/photolook/
the first image - normal the third - corrected
now photo film and digital do things VERY DIFFERENTLY
with film it is a combination of expose and time in the processing chemicals that sets the “zone”
for digital 8bit or 16 bit or 32 bit hdr images a “light curve” tool works the SAME way as setting the “zone”
8bit = 256 tones
16 bit = 65536 tones
32 bit – trillions
– this tool in Gimp ( color / curves )
– have fun
Thank you very much for your feedbacks!
I have made an other version, trying to follow your advice. I chose the ratio 3:2.
Thank you JohnVV for the links about the zone system, I had never heard about it before and that’s quite interesting 
Is it on purpose that the picture is so blurry and pixellated ? It may be for the old look, but I think it should be more sharp compared to the definition of your picture. Also it would get rid of the aliasing, that you can see on the spoon and vase edges.
One last thing, It seems you use only one light, it could be a good idea to add some other ones, but it really depends of what you want to achieve.
Thank you asmoth, yes, actually I made several tests of light, and I found later that this setting was the best, but I haven’t found how to make every settings I had chose again the same. So I can’t render again the image 
the noise was actually intentional, but I think you’re right, it’s a bit too much. But I am going to go on an other project, so I posted it on Finished projects. I’m planning on making other black and white image and I’ll try to make them better than this one.