How To Make Your Photos Look Retro and Vintage in Photoshop
by hotrocksBy using the curves, brightness-contrast, and gradient map adjustment layers in Photoshop, I will teach you how to change the color tones in your photo to achieve a retro/vintage look.
You Will Need
- Adobe Photoshop
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Step 1: Create a Curves Adjustment Layer
Click the half black-half white circle (Adjustment Layers) and choose Curves.
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Step 2: Select the Red Channel
Click the dialog box labeled Channel, and choose Red.
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Step 3: Add Red to the Highlights
Click on the red curve (line) in the middle of the first quadrant, and drag it diagonally towards the top left a small distance. What you are doing is adding red to the highlights of the photo.
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Step 4: Subtract Red from the Shadows
Click on the red curve (line) in the middle of the third quadrant, and drag it diagonally towards the bottom right a small distance. What you are doing is subtracting red from the shadows of the photo.
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Step 5: Select the Green Channel
Click the dialog box labeled Channel, and choose Green.
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Step 6: Add Green to the Highlights
Click on the green curve (line) in the middle of the first quadrant, and drag it diagonally towards the top left a small distance. What you are doing is adding green to the highlights of the photo.
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Step 7: Subtract Green from the Shadows
Click on the green curve (line) in the middle of the third quadrant, and drag it diagonally towards the bottom right a small distance. What you are doing is subtracting green from the shadows of the photo.
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Step 8: Select the Blue Channel
Click the dialog box labeled Channel, and choose Blue.
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Step 9: Subtract Blue from the Highlights
Click on the blue curve (line) in the middle of the first quadrant, and drag it diagonally towards the bottom right small distance. What you are doing is subtracting blue from the highlights of the photo.
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Step 10: Add Blue to the Shadows
Click on the blue curve (line) in the middle of the third quadrant, and drag it diagonally towards the top left a small distance. What you are doing is adding blue to the shadows of the photo.
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Tip
Tweaking the Curves is a completley asthetic process. If you want to add or subtract a certain color from a certain part of the photo to achieve your vision, do so here. Adding Red = Subtracting Cyan and visa versa. Adding Green = Subtracting Magenta and visa versa. Adding Blue = Subtracting Yellow and visa versa.
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Step 11: Press OK
When you are done tweaking the Curves, press OK.
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Step 12: Fine Tune with the Layer Mask
Click the little white rectangle next to the Curves Adjustment Layer and brush black over parts that you didn’t want to change. Brush white to re-change the parts you brushed black. Use grays or different opacitys of the black brush to slightly take away changes.
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Step 13: Optional: Change the Brightness and Contrast
If you feel you need to, create a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer and add/subtract brightness and contrast to your liking. I usually brighten the photo up a tad and add some contrast.
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Step 14: Optional: Add A Gradient Map
If you feel you need to, create a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer and choose a gradient. I like to use the Violet-Orange, Violet-Green-Orange, Medium Spectrum (Rainbow). What a Gradient Map does is that it maps a gradient to the different amounts of light in the image.
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Step 15: If a Gradient Map was used: Set to soft light
Set the Gradient Map layer to Soft Light. You can experiment with other blending modes, but Soft Light will almost always be your best bet. Experiment with opacity to find a good improvement that isn’t too overpowering.
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Step 16: Fine tune with the Layer Mask
Like we did before, fine tune the adjustment layer by brushing on the layer mask.
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Step 17: Enjoy!
Enjoy your results! I hope you learned something from this tutorial.
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Tip
Check out my blog for the written guide and other cool photography tips and daily photos. http://hotrocksphoto.blogspot.com
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Tip
Questions or Comments? Please comment here, on my blog, or email me at mcgold@verizon.net