Infinite Alchemy - www.infinitealchemy.com

ANTIQUE PHOTO EFFECT

Before you do anything, download this brush file (Right-Click >> Save Target As... [Save Link As...]) and load it to your brush collection on Photoshop.
1.) Pick a photo... any photo! I chose a photo of Ray and Frank from My Chemical Romance.

2.) Make sure the layer is unlocked. If you don't know how to do that, click and drag the locked layer in your layers pallette to the button next to the trash button on the pallette. A duplicate copy of the locked layer will appear on top of it and will be unlocked. Take the locked photo and drag it in the trash.

3.) Desaturate the photo by pressing Ctrl+Shift+U.

4.) Create a new layer by pressing the button next to the trash button on your layers pallette.

5.) With the new layer selected on your layers pallette, fill the layer using the paint bucket with a pastel yellow.

6.) Select the pull down menu on the layer pallette and choose the "overlay" effect.

7.) Next changed the opacity of the layer from 100% to 40%. This varies depending on the photo you choose. Also, it depends on the amount of contrast you want.

8.) Here's where those brushes you downloaded come in. Create a new layer, but position it under the yellow layer and above the photo layer in your pallette.

9.) Select your brush tool.

10.) There will be 4 brushes you'll be using. With that new blank layer selected, choose the following brushes and rather then using it like a regular brush and putting brush strokes all over, what you'll do is what I call "dabbing." When cleaning a spill on a table, rather than wiping the cloth across the table and sloshing the water around, you'd dab the cloth on the spill so that the cloth could absorb the spill rather than sloshing it around. I guess what i'm trying to say is with the brushes you'll use, rather than clicking and dragging the brushes across the image, click once or twice and then move on to the next brush until you get relatively the same effect that you'll see in the next few images.

Oh, and be sure you use the color white when "dabbing." ...God, I'm such a dork.

11.) Your end result should look like so...

12.) Next, with the middle layer still selected, change the opacity from 100% to 60%.

13.) Go to the Layers Menu at the top of the screen and go to "Flatten Image" and then you're done. Your finished result should look like so...

GO BACK.