Vintage Photos

in Adobe® Photoshop® Elements

Photos with a vintage look are all the rage these days. Here, we’ll show you how to give your own photos that great, aged look! There are pretty many steps in this process, but none of them are difficult and we’ll take you through each in detail.

These instructions assume that you are comfortable working in Photoshop Elements. If you need help with the basics of Photoshop Elements, be sure to check out our video tutorials on working with Quickpages in the Learning Center.

Let’s get started by opening a copy of the picture that you want to age in Photoshop Elements. By working on a copy of your original picture, you can be sure that nothing happens to the original.

When you open your photo, you’ll probably see that, in the layers palette, the layer that the photo is on is called ‘Background’ and has a small lock icon next to it. When you open a digital photo in Elements, normally the image opens with only a background layer:

The Background is a special layer in Photoshop and it has some limitations on it that normal layers in Photoshop don’t have. The Background layer can’t include areas of transparency and it has to always remain on the bottom of the stack of layers. Background layers can’t be deleted, and they can’t be moved. Layer styles can’t be applied to a Background layers.

So, given all these limitations, we’ll convert the Background layer to an ordinary layer. To do this, double click on the name of the Background layer in the layers palette. You can then type a new name for the layer or accept the default that Photoshop uses, “Layer 0″. I’ll leave mine at the default:

Click ‘OK’.

The first thing I’m going to do is add a very small blur to the image. To do this, choose

Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur:

Set the Gaussian Blur to use a radius of 0.5 pixels and click ‘OK’:

Now, I’m going to add some noise to the photo to simulate grain. To do this, choose:

Filter>Noise>Add Noise:

Use the following settings in the Add Noise dialog box:

• Amount: 3%
• Uniform Distribution
• Monochromatic

Click ‘OK’.

At this point, I like to add some very subtle distressing to the edges of the photo using layer styles. But, these effects aren’t available in Photoshop Elements. So, I’ve included an overlay you can use to create these edge effects if you’re using Photoshop Elements. You can download this file here.

To apply this edge effect, you’ll need to resize the overlay file that you downloaded to match the image you’re working on. In my case, the image I’m working on is 3″ x 4.25″. If you’re not sure about the size of your image, you can check it by choosing:

Image>Resize>Image Size:

A dialog box will pop-up showing you the size of your image:

So, here you can see that my image is 3″ x 4.25″ so I’ll need to resize my overlay to be that same size.

To resize your overlay, open the overlay file that you downloaded. Resize it by choosing:

Image>Resize>Image Size:

A dialog box will pop-up showing the size of the overlay image:

Resize the overlay by unchecking the box next to ‘Constrain Proportions’ and then setting the width to 3 inches and the height to 4.25″:

Click ‘OK’.

Now, with the move tool selected, drag the overlay image onto your photo. You’ll know that you’ve dragged it far enough when you see the plus sign (+) next to your cursor:

Hold the shift button down as you release the mouse button so that the overlay is centered on your photo.

Once you have the overlay file copied onto your image, close out the overlay file, and don’t save your changes to it.

The gray overlay file should now be on top of your photo and your photo will now look gray:

Select the layer with the overlay on it (Layer 1) and change its blending mode to ‘overlay’:

Now, your photo will show through, with slightly distressed, darkened edges.

I want to add in a little more distressing, so I’m going to use a light grunge texture I downloaded from Bittbox. Bittbox is a great source for textures, so you may want to add that site to your favorites!

Open the texture and rotate it and resize it to fit as we did above with the overlay layer. Now, drag the texture onto your photo, then close out the texture file.

Move the texture to the top of the layers stack, if it’s not already there, by clicking and dragging on the layer in the layers palette:

Select the texture layer and desaturate its color so that it won’t change the color of the photo. Do this by choosing:

Enhance>Adjust Color>Remove Color:

I’m also going to invert the colors in the texture layer to get the effect I want and I’ll use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+I to do this.

Now, I’ll change the blending mode of the texture layer to Lighten and the opacity to 40%. But, you’ll want to play with these two setting when you’re working with your own photo to get a look you like. Here’s my photo:

Next, add a soft haze to the photo by adding a solid color adjustment layer. First select the top texture layer and then click on the black and white circle at the bottom of the layers palette. Choose ‘Solid Color’ from the pop-out menu.

When the color picker dialog box comes up, code in the color ivory, hex code #f7f7df:

Click ‘OK’.

Change the opacity for the color adjustment layer to 15%:

Next, add a levels adjustment layer by again clicking on the black and white circle at the bottom of the layers palette. This time, choose ‘Levels’:

When the Levels adjustment panel comes up, move the middle slider from 1.0 to 1.2. This will lighten and slightly fade your photo:

Now, we’ll add a gradient map adjustment layer. This layer will help to add a vintage tint to areas of the photo. Add this adjustment by clicking on the black and white circle at the bottom of the layers palette and choosing ‘Gradient Map’ from the pop-out menu:

When the Gradient Map adjustment panel comes up, click on the color bar:

This will bring up the Gradient Picker. There, set the foreground color by clicking on the small box on the left and below the color bar:

Then click on the color block towards the bottom of the dialog box:

This will bring up the color picker dialog box. Code in a dark pink color, hex code #a8235d:

Click ‘OK’.

Now, do the same thing to change the background color. In the Gradient Editor, click on the small box on the right and below the color bar:

And, then click on the color block towards the bottom of the dialog box:

When the color picker dialog box comes up, code in light blue, hex #afd6f0:

Click ‘OK’ and then click ‘OK’ again to close the Gradient Editor.

Change the blending mode for the Gradient Map adjustment layer to ‘Soft Light’:

Now, add another gradient map adjustment layer, this one a black to white gradient map. Add this adjustment layer by clicking on the black and white circle at the bottom of the layers palette and choosing ‘Gradient Map’ from the pop-out menu:

The default Gradient Map is white to black. So, when the Gradient Map adjustment panel comes up, you’ll notice that the color bar goes from white on the left side to black towards the right:

But, we want our Gradient Map to go from black to white. So to get this, all we have to do is check the box next to ‘Reverse’ and the color bar changes to show black on the left side going to white on the right:

Adjust the opacity to of this layer until it looks good to you. I used 10% here:

We’re almost done! For our last layer, we’ll add a solid color adjustment layer to give our photo the blue cast you see in vintage photos. Add the solid color adjustment layer by clicking on the black and white circle at the bottom of the layers palette and choosing ‘Solid Color’ from the pop-out menu:

When the color picker dialog box comes up, code in a deep blue color, hex code #011073:

Click ‘OK’

Now, change the blending mode for this adjustment layer to ‘Exclusion’ and change the opacity to 40%:

That’s it! You’re done! Your photo should now have a great vintage look.