Create a quick vintage look in Photoshop CS6

Use Photoshop CS6’s Color Lookup feature to change colours in four simple steps…

If you want to give you photographs that old vintage movie look, you’ll be pleased to know that you don’t have to go out and buy an old camera – you can easily achieve the same nostalgic look by applying some simple techniques in Photoshop. In this quick tutorial, we’ll be experimenting with colour adjustments, then adding grain and a vignette to give the impression that our picture has come straight out of the 1940s.

Our before shot

How to create a vintage look in Photoshop CS6

01 Add Colour Lookup Layer

Open the ‘color_lookup_before.jpg’ start image via File>Open. Next, click on the Adjustment layer icon and select Color Lookup in the drop-down menu. All the options to adjust the colours in the image will appear in a separate properties dialog box below.

02 Change the Colours

There are three different tabs from which you can select the alternative colour effects. To give the image a vintage look, switch to the Abstract tab. Then, from the drop-down menu, select Gold-Crimson. You can experiment with alternative effects depending on how you want your final image to appear.

03 Add a Vignette

Next, duplicate the Background Layer and label it ‘Filter effects’. Right-click the Filter effects layer and select Convert to Smart Object. This means that you can add multiple filter effects in a non-destructive way. To add a vignette, go to Filter>Lens Correction and switch to the Custom tab. Under Vignette, change Amount to -60 and Midpoint to +40. Click OK.

04 Add Some Grain

Finally, to add some grain, go to Filter>Filter Gallery and under the Textures menu, select Grain. Increase Intensity to 20 and Contrast to 60. Keep Grain Type on Regular.
Click OK to apply the effect, then save the image as a PSD file to keep the layers intact.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2013 at 9:00 am and is filed under Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.