Old and Worn-Out Photo Effect

Author: Jan Cavan, Category: Photoshop, Tutorials

In this tutorial, you will learn how to add an old and worn-out effect to a photo in Photoshop with just a few easy steps! This is a pretty simple tutorial but the outcome is great and this tutorial is useful most especially for Photoshop newbies. I’m sure this will come in handy in your future designs, too!

Materials Needed:
GrandeOmbre’s Old Frame Texture
Slimmbarb’s Special Moment Stock Photo

1. Create a new document in Photoshop with dimensions 489×327 but if you intend this to be a large artwork, you may want to consider changing the size of the document.

2. Open GrandeOmbre’s Old Frame texture in Photoshop and go to Image > Rotate Canvas > 90 degrees CW. Drag this texture onto our new document and resize it the same size as our document using Edit > Transform > Scale

3. Open Slimmbarb’s Special Moments photo and resize it just like how we did it in Step (2). This is to make this photo about the same size as the document we created. Drag the photo onto the document and make sure it is above our texture layer. Hide this photo layer. Make sure the photo layer is still the active layer and with the use of the Polygon Lasso Tool (L), make a selection around the gray area of the frame

4. Show the photo layer again and click on the Mask icon. Upon hitting on the Mask icon, notice a little black square with a white circle appear next to our photo layer. This means that our photo is being masked. The black area is the concealed area while the area with the white area is the unconcealed area

5. Let us add a grainy look to our photo by hitting Filter > Noise > Add Noise with these settings

6. Change the Blending Mode of the photo layer to Overlay to achieve the kind of look below

7. Let us now add some saturation to the colors of both our photo and our frame texture by hitting Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue and Saturation > OK with these settings

8. As you have probably observed, old photos are a bit yellowish so let us add that kind of effect by hitting Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance > OK with these settings

9. Let us add this final touch to our design to give it a more old or retro effect. Create a new layer above all the layers. Using the Gradient Tool (G), create a linear gradient from # 3a5750 to #b97630

10. Change the Blending Mode of the gradient layer to Soft Light and its Opacity to 73%

We have now given our photo an old, worn-out look! Why don’t you try it with your own photos?

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