Aging Photographs in Adobe Photoshop

One of the most frequently asked questions I get about my artwork and photography, is how I age them and add the torn, wrinkled paper effect to the work. The reason that I do not answer each email in detail is that I do not have a certain set of steps that I follow each time, at least not the same steps. This makes it very difficult to explain to someone else just what to do when a lot of it is trial and error for me. However, what might prove helpful is to take an photograph of mine and just walk you through some of the steps, which should give you a foundation on which to build and explore further. I would encourage you to use this as I said, as a foundation. Put your own twist and angle on the work and give it your own personality.

And as always, by making this available, I am not laying claim to being the last word in Photoshop methods. I am sure there are other ways of accomplishing these tasks, and if you know of some, that is great. However, this tutorial is meant for those who are interesting in a few new techniques. Now, on with the tutorial...

The first step is to get an image to work with. For this example, I used a photograph that I took in the Historic District in Sanford, Florida. Also, for the purpose of this exercise I will be working at 700x525. Normally I would be working at a much larger size so that the image would be suitable for print. If you want to download a little larger file (1280x960), you can do so here.

Click to enlarge

As you can quickly notice, its not too terribly exciting and the horizon line has a slant to it. Sometimes my hand and camera is not too steady when taking shots, and since I do not have a tripod, this is often something that I have to deal with. Since I am a control freak, I will turn on the rulers (Control + R) and drag out a guide from the top of the window to create a new horizon line. Using the arrow tool, click and drag from the ruler to bring a new guide down. I like to align it with a clear horizontal marking in the image and here, I used the bottom "bar" under the windows. You can now rotate the image using Free Transform (Control + T) to line it up correctly. Note: You might also have to stretch the image a little, upsizing it a tad to fill the canvas. Below is an example of what I have done so far:

Now, lets add a funky grunge-like border to this thing. First, create a new layer above the photograph layer and name it "Border". Select the entire canvas (Control + A) and add a border by stroking the canvas, Edit > Stroke. Select a width of 15px, color of #FFFFFF and a location of "Inside". See below:

Now, here is the part where the steps are difficult to outline. From here, I do a lot of trial and error with various Photoshop brushes. The main brushes that I have used in this example come from Angryblue, Open Minded, and VBrush. I have selected brushes that are not too wild and crazy, but some that are very close to being totally horizontal or vertical, nothing overly round, etc. What I do next is "paint" around the edges with the brushes (using #FFFFFF as the foreground color). All of this is done in a new layer on top of the border layer. That way if I get too carried away I can just scrap it.

Also, experiment with the brushes. Do not always use them just as you installed them. Rotate them, erase portions of them, changed them up! Use a variety of brushes, angles, etc to give it a unique border. See below:

Like I said, I am a control freak and like to have everything organized as much as possible. At this point, I will break up the image into two folders, one for the border and one for the image itself. Create a new folder and name it "Border". Drag all of your border layers into this folder. I have merged all of mine into a single layer since I was satisfied with the border look and feel. Next, create another folder and name it "Image" and move the image layer under this new folder. Why do all of this? Well, you do not really have to. However, if you want to scrap the border or work with the image some more, you do not have to go hunting for which layers the border or images are on. This makes updating later a little easier and keeps me sane. =)

Next step is to work a little with the photograph itself. Duplicate the Photo layer by dragging it to the "New Layer" icon. Rename it to Photo Color and turn the visibility of this layer off. Keeping with the aged theme, let's turn the color into black & white by desaturating it (Control + Shift + U). Yes, there are better methods of changing an image from color to black and white, but for the purpose of this tutorial, I am taking a quicker route. Feel free to explore alternate methods if you wish. Once you have desaturated the Photo layer, run a few quick image adjustments on it:

• Auto Levels (Shift + Control +L)
• Auto Contrast (Alt + Shift + Control +L)

Now, lets add a little sepia tone to the image by adjusting the colors. Image > Adjust > Color Balance (Control + B) should do the trick. Adjust your settings accordingly:

OK, so lets add a little more wear and tear on the photo, and one of my favorite things to do is add some texture to the image. It is really just as simple as that with not hidden tricks. The hardest part is having a great texture library to work from. I have placed some of my stock photographs up at Abnormis, and you can always check out places such as Deviant Art, B-Man, and Kriegs.

Here is a sample of the texture that I plan to add to the photo (slightly larger version (800x533) - download):

Paste the texture above the photo layer (but under the "Photo Color" layer), desaturate (Control + Shift + U) it, change the blending mode to "Soft Light" and change the opacity to 70%. The trick is to add something that compliments the image, not over-powers it.

Also, if you wanted to toss in a tad bit of color, turn on the "Photo Color" layer and change the blending mode to "Soft Light" and then adjust the opacity to 50% to get the following effect:

That is pretty much the basics of this. Not so difficult at all, right?

Click to enlarge

Summary: As I said earlier, there are many ways of doing this type of work. Your main limitation will be your imagination. I would recommend building a library of brushes and texture photos from around the internet to use in your work. Do not be afraid to manipulate the brushes and textures by rotating them, erasing portions, and changing blending modes. Anyone can follow a tutorial, that is why it is important to put your own twist and personality into your work!