Apply a Quick & Easy Vintage Photo Effect

Step 1

Copy and paste in this photo of a guitarist, resizing it to 600px width.

Step 2

Duplicate this layer and go to filter>blur>gaussian blur. Apply a 3.5 strength gaussian blur and then change this layer's opacity to 60%. This should nicely soften your image:

Step 3

Now open your adjustments panel, and apply a color balance adjustment layer (settings below):

Step 4

Now apply a second adjustment layer (photo filter) - see the settings below:

Step 5

Now paste in this great paper texture.

Go to image>adjustments>desaturate to grayscale it, and then apply the levels settings shown below:

Step 6

Reduce your paper texture layer's opacity to 10%:

Step 7

Create a new layer called 'image border'. Then fill this with whatever color you want. In your layer's palette reduce this layer's FILL opacity to 0%, leaving it's main opacity at 100%. This means that your color used to fill your canvas will not be visible, but any blending options and layer styles will be!

Then apply a 10px stroke (position: inner), opacity: 20%, to create a nice border to your image:

Step 8

Create a new layer called 'radial gradients'. Use your radial gradient tool (ranging from various bright colors to transparent) and create some highlights over your image (see below):

Then change this layer's blend mode to 'overlay' and reduce it's opacity to 15%:

Step 9

Create a new layer called 'white bar'. Using your marquee tool or rectangle shape tool create a white bar spanning across the bottom of your image.

Then reduce this layer's FILL opacity to 50%.

Go to blending options and apply a 1px white stroke effect. This should create a nice subtle area to place text:

Step 10

Now add some text over your bar area. I chose to apply a very high kerning setting to space my text out nicely.

Then I added a black outer glow blending option to my white text to add some subtle emphasis to it:

And We're Done!