Image Manipulation Tutorials

Stepping Back In Time With Your Post Production

Marc Goldstein once told me that it is useless to create effects withan image unless you have a purpose for those effects. Alteringimages to create necessary effects is part of learning the artfulapplication of Photoshop, but making a modern image look like it isdecades older and has seen physical wear and tear requires a bit of a reversal of thought with the use of filters and effects. This tutorialtakes an image of a woman dressed in a period style of the early20th century and literally sends it back in time by combiningdifferent effects to create conditions of time and wear. Find animage that you want to give some antiquing to and then cut loosewith the steps below…1. Open your image and then duplicate the background. Name it theSepia layer. Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. In thedialog box check the Colorize box and then drag the Hue slider toaround 40. Set the saturation to 23 and the Lightness to between+6 and +10, depending on how well lit your image is. Now yourimage has been sent back to the early part of the 20th century.2. The contrast may be too much at this point with the previousadjustments, so go to Image>Adjustments>Levels to tone down thecontrast. In the dialog, locate the Input Levels and change themfrom left to right with 18, 1.50, 235. Mess around with thesesettings within a 10 point spread to get the Levels where you wantthem to be.3. Add a new layer. This will be the layer that holds the thickborders so common to antique photographs. Go to Select>All.Change the foreground color swatch to something like a light creamcolor and then go to Edit>Stroke. Make the Stroke Width 45 andchoose Inside for the Location. Click OK and see your borderappear! Press Ctrl/Cmd + D to deselect the area on the borderlayer.4. This next part might be a bit confusing, so follow along closely.You’re going to create the paper seen under the scratches of theimage that you’ll be making shortly. Click on the very first layer, theoriginal background layer and then press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N for aquick way to add a new blank layer right above the originalbackground layer. Go to Edit>Fill and choose the foreground coloryou used for the border. Now you’re ready to start making thisimage look its age.

5. Select the Sepia layer and go to Layer>Layer Mask> Reveal All.The next thing you’re going to do is age a smudge a corner of theimage to give it a rubbed off appearance. Choose the Brush tooland go to the Brush picker palette. Find the Rough Round Bristleand select it. You may need to reset your brushes and choose toshow text descriptions if you don’t know which one is the RoughRound Bristle.6. Still on the Sepia layer, click on the layer mask with yourpaintbrush and then set your Foreground color to black. With yourbig burly brush, brush away at one or two of the corners. Use theHistory Palette or Cmd/Ctlr + Z to move backwards if you aren’tsatisfied with a stroke. Work until you’ve aged a corner or two toyour satisfaction. Now reduce the brush size all the way down to 6pixels. Using this tiny brush, mark all over the image to give theimpression of scratches.7. Now you’re going to recreate foxing to make the image look as if it got a little damp at some point and you’ll do this by using Filters.Add a new layer to the top of the layer stack. Reset your foregroundand background colors to the default of black/white. Next, go toFilter>Render>Clouds and then go to Filter>Render>DifferenceClouds. At the top of the Layers palette, pull down the blend modemenu and choose Difference. Set the opacity to anywhere between15% and 25%. Next, clear up the face a little by using the eraser toolto clear some of the filter from the face, but make sure not to makeit too obvious!8. At this point the image is very nearly completed. You’ll now use agradient and filter to create some creases to make it look like theimage has been bent or damaged. Add another layer at the top of the stack. Now choose the Gradient tool and click on the GradientPicker in the Options menu. The gradient you want is theForeground to Background gradient. Click on that and then chooseLinear Gradient from the Options menu. Now that you have yourgradient options defined, click the Gradient tool against the imagein the lower left corner and drag it up and to the right, releasing themouse to apply.9. Next, go immediately to Filter>Render>Difference Clouds(remember this filter?). Now you’ll adjust this filtered gradient to