Elements is packed with effects, but
they aren't always subtle. With some fine-tuning, though, you can really make
them work!
What you need: Photoshop Elements 10 or 11 (www.adobe.com; $99.99 full, $79.99
upgrade)
There's a lot of subtlety in recreating
vintage photo effects. A simple sepia effect doesn't really do it, because your
image still has that underlying ‘‘digital’' clarity and smoothness. The Old
Photo effect, applied with the Smart Brush tool, is better. It adds a subtle
sepia effect and adds scratches and striations for a "distressed"
look. Even this isn't quite enough, though. The results are contrasty, and the
toned black and white image doesn’t hint at the colors in the original.
Combining the Old Photo effect with subtle
adjustments and masking can produce a much more appealing result. First, we
need to ensure the key parts of our picture aren't too dark, as the Old Photo
effect will make them darker still. Then we’re going to blur the background to reinforce
the illusion of age. Finally, some subtle brushwork on the Old Photo effect’s
layer mask will restore some subtle hints of color.
Starting Image
This shot of a vintage car just doesn't
look right as a colorful digital image, so we'll try to give it the look of an
old, faded photo. The Old Photo effects in Elements are a starting point, but
with some subtle tweaks it’s possible to improve on them massively.
Subjects
like this vintage car can look out of place in colorful digital photos
Making
photos look old often requires a combination of techniques, not just one.
1. Select the Key Area
The Old Photo effect darkens the picture
and adds contrast, so some preparatory work is often necessary. The key area of
interest here is the front of the car. We don’t need to be precise about the
selection, so we'll use the Freehand Lasso tool, then Select > Feather the
selection by 250 pixels.
2. Brightening Up
The front of the car is quite dark, so a
Brightness/Contrast adjustment is needed. This could be applied with an
adjustment layer, but doing so would make things more complicated in the next
step, so in this case it makes more sense to apply it directly to the image.
3. Blur the Background
Old photos often have blurry backgrounds,
and once you've got your key area selected, this is easy to do. Simply invert
the selection (Select > Inverse), then apply the Gaussian Blur filter. Pick
a value that gives a subtle but noticeable blurring effect. With this picture,
eight pixels is about right.
4. Smart Brush Options
Now, select the Smart Brush tool from the
tools panel on the left. On the options bar you'll see a menu containing all
the Smart Brush effects. Choose Photographic from the list here, then click Old
Photo. Next, choose a large brush size you can use the [ and ] keys or the size
slider.
5. Paint over the Image
Normally, you’d apply Smart Brush effects
to specific areas. Here, though, you should brush across the whole image to
apply the effect to all of it you may have to wait a few moments for the Smart
Brush to catch up. The new effect is produced on a new layer above the original
one.
6. Select the Brush Tool
This new layer also has a layer mask
directly alongside. It's white, which means that the layer covers the image
below, but you can paint on this mask to show areas of the original picture.
First, set the Foreground color to black, then set a large, soft brush size and
set the Opacity to 10 percent.
7. Paint on the Mask
Now you can brush over areas where you want
the original colors to show through. You don't have to be precise subtle
blending works better than pixel-perfect selections, and it's much quicker and
simpler! Just brush, and brush again, to build up color in areas you want to
bring out.
Final Image
Elements' Old Photo effect isn’t very
subtle, but by combining it carefully with the original image, it's possible to
produce much more attractive results. You get the scratches of an old picture,
and you can subtly blend in the original colors, too.
