Old Time Photo Effect

Here’s how to take your brand new, crystal clear, $400 digital camera photo and make it look 50 years old.

We’ll obviously start with the photo we want to edit. I used this one courtesy of PhotoSpin.com (PhotoSpin #1450003).

First duplicate your background layer [Ctrl + J]. Desaturate the color from your duplicated layer with [Ctrl + U]. Then duplicate the desaturated layer [Ctrl + J].

Now we’re going to run Find Edges [Filter > Stylize > Find Edges]. Adjust the the Levels a little bit [Ctrl + L] by sliding the far-right slider towards the left to get a more outlined effect.

Set your “outline” layer mode to Overlay. In your Layers Palette, select your background layer, duplicate it [Ctrl + J], and drag it to the top of your layer order.

Now we’ll run the Cutout Filter [Filter > Artistic > Cutout]. Change the settings to: Number of Levels: 8; Edge Simplicity: 0; Edge Fidelity: 3;

Before you do anything else, Fade the Filter [Ctrl + Shift + F] down to around 65%, to reduce the filter effect slightly.

Set the Layer Mode to Multiply. Drag the Opacity of your “outline” layer down to around 45%.

Your photo might appear too dark now, so we’re going to add a Curves Adjustment Layer at the top, and drag the dark-end up a little bit, to lighten the dark areas.

And now we’re done:

Old

New