Photoshop Tip - How to Make Your Photo Look Vintage

These days I am learning the rope of the functions the Photoshop has.

Although I very much consider myself as a beginner, I would like to share some tips I have learnt during the process. I bought this book on Photoshop, determind, and now am trying to follow the steps of the masters.. But only the more I do so, the more I get amazed at some of the master's touch you see on the Internet. :) …They just seem so far ahead of me to follow with ease, at this point.

Without any proper lessons and only just trying to mimic what others posted on the Internet, I think I'm making a little progress thanks to over-repeated attempts one after another. :)

So here is one of the skills I have learnt: To make photos look old in a nostalgic-vintage way.

Sometimes old photos speak more than newer ones. Maybe it's because you can feel a little bit of analog touch from it, like the ones you pull out from your dusty attic room. So let the beginner begin his shallow lecture.

This is the finished version. Does this look old and vintage?

So, let's begin the steps.

1. First, save the photo below and open it on your Photoshop.

2. This would be your background photo. Adjust the size as you like. Resize this picture so it's comfortable for you to work on.

3. Open the picture you'd like to retouch. This photo is something I had downloaded from the Internet. I thought of retouching other photos, but then a thought occurred to me - making a photo looking so modern and everyday into something vintage would be fun.

4. Drag the wanted photo to the old one. Then adjust the size, simply with 'free transfrom', changing the width and length.
5. After you've done that, click on 'apply'. That's right, you're almost getting there :)

6. Set the 'opactity' on your right below, until you find the grade you prefer.

7. Then, change the layer mode to screen, and also click on opactity levels until you get what you like.

8. Put together the layers using ctrl + E.

9. If your picture is too bright or dark, open 'curve' and apply the S curve as demostrated below.
10. To add a little degree of definition, go for 'Unshop Mask'.

11. Compare the finished version with the original. Vintage enough for you? These retoughed pictures would make a nice little present for your loved ones. Well, that just about completes my beginner's-tips-by-the-beginner-himself!

12. Also…
Here are some more samples of oldish retouched pictures. Hope you have fun with your retouch work. :)