Tuesday, March 24, 2009

vintage color tutorial...

I get asked often how I give some of my pics the vintage color look to them... it's very simple and I'm sure not how the "professionals" do it, but it works for me :)

(I found it by total accident)

So here it is!

(This is for adobe photoshop users but you can play along in other programs also!)

Pick out your picture and get it sharpened up how you want it...



the turn it black and white-

go to IMAGE, then ADJUSTMENTS, then BLACK & WHITE...



then you fade the black and white to bring out a touch of the colors in the pic-

under EDIT, then FADE BLACK AND WHITE.

This will vary with each picture, this time I faded down to 85% opacity...



then you brighten and contrast, this will vary with each pic also-

under ADJUSTMENTS then BRIGHTEN/CONTRAST...



sometimes I will add a bit of color with the COLOR BALANCE--

under ADJUSTMENTS then COLOR BALANCE, and then boost with a bit more CONTRAST to get my final pic...



I hope this was helpful and I would LOVE to see your pics you edit using these directions! Please let me know if you do!

Have fun!

8 comments:

Julie said...

I've been looking up photoshop tips today and then you go and post this - thank you, I've always thought your pictures are darling. And... we have many similar - my girl loves the phone too and we have many with her saying, "Hi" on it.

Ter said...

You have a beautiful blog. I came here via Etsy It Up! :)

Celeste said...

Thanks so much for the how-to Erin! I love to learn fun, new picture tricks :)

P.S. The giveaway's up now :)

Theresa said...

Thanks for that! I got adobe for xmas and haven't really even attempted to use it yet.

Tina said...

What a great thing to know! I am going to go check it out on my adobe right now - (although I'm not very good at follwowing directions...lol)
BTW - I found your site through your giveaway at etsyitup.blogspot.com - your jewelry is amazing! I love it!!

Tina said...

Ok I tried it - but I can't seem to get the same effect. I didn't have the black and white option on my adobe - the only way I know how to get that is going to mode and then grayscale. I tried searching but it's not looking good. So the closest I could get to the antiquey look was to do hue and saturation with the full color and just lower the saturation by a lot. Not bad though =)

gina said...

Oh thanks for the tip - I'm definetly going to have to give it a try... I love the way your photos have been coming out! I'll let you know when I do.

Abi Leigh Photography said...

Great stuff!! Also if anyone has Adobe lightroom 2.0 it has a function if you right click on the pic to change it to an aged photo in just one click. If someone is looking for a great editing program, lightroom is a definite!! I have also had good luck with photoshop elements 7.0 simple to use and oh so useful!! Thanks for sharing!!