Trying to age a pic

[Canna W]

Hi, I have got this far in trying to age a pic, but I think maybe it still looks too new for the surround I have given it - which is an old mount. I'm also aiming to age it without losing too much quality. It doesn't have to be authentic, just reasonably plausible - but I am not sure it is plausible yet.

I'm not sure the 'crease' I have given it is any good at all!

Suggestions or feedback would be very welcome.

[Mike]

Re: Trying to age a pic

Some thoughts:
If you are trying to make it look like one of those old photos that are mounted on the "cardboard" mounts, then the crease should also go across the mount?

I think the contrast in the photo is to high, most old photos suffer from a loss of contrast.

I think I might make the whole thing look like it is "dirtier". It needs more grunge, especially the mount. If it was 100 years old, the mount should be very dark from all the hands that have picked it up during that time.

Hope that helps.

[TommyO]

Re: Trying to age a pic

Overall, pretty good. I suppose it also depends on your purpose. If for your own use, then you may not be concerned about the crease, etc. However, if you are going to market them, no one really wants an image with excessive damage; so why add it in. However, the damage seems a bit too perfect. Creases are never quite so straight. You can easily copy and paste creases from other images, best using the luminosity only. There is also a duplicated flaw in the sky, apparently from cloning, that look sort of like "ufo's". You may wish to add a little edge shadow on the image along the line of the matte.

[Nan]

Re: Trying to age a pic

This is just a thought...if the photo is supposed to be REALLY old, would the dog have a tag on his collar? I'm not sure when that began. I like the photo and the mounting though!
Nan

[Canna W]

Re: Trying to age a pic

Many thanks to all of you for the feedback - it is greatly appreciated!

I attached a version of the pic with the amendments suggested. (I also introduced a reddish hue to it....)


Some thoughts:
If you are trying to make it look like one of those old photos that are mounted on the "cardboard" mounts, then the crease should also go across the mount?

I think the contrast in the photo is to high, most old photos suffer from a loss of contrast.

I think I might make the whole thing look like it is "dirtier". It needs more grunge, especially the mount. If it was 100 years old, the mount should be very dark from all the hands that have picked it up during that time.

Hope that helps.

Hi Mike. Many thanks for that. Given the difficulties I was having with the crease I got rid of it all together.... I did try it across the card as well, but it still looked too artificial (because of my lack of skills).

I lowered the contrast a bit. I couldn't do it too much or I really lost the definition in what is quite a fussy photograph, but I did do it a bit.

I tried to make the whole thing dirtier, using a variety of grunge brushes...

Overall, pretty good. I suppose it also depends on your purpose. If for your own use, then you may not be concerned about the crease, etc. However, if you are going to market them, no one really wants an image with excessive damage; so why add it in. However, the damage seems a bit too perfect. Creases are never quite so straight. You can easily copy and paste creases from other images, best using the luminosity only. There is also a duplicated flaw in the sky, apparently from cloning, that look sort of like "ufo's". You may wish to add a little edge shadow on the image along the line of the matte.


Many thanks Tommy. I got rid of the UFOs heh heh... I also put in a shadow round the edge of the matte - that was a really helpful tip. The crease defeated me. I would really like to learn how to do them, and the luminosity thing sounded very interesting, but I am not sure how you pick them up from the original image, or what exactly you are trying to pick up. I wondered if using a 'lightening' brush might have a similar effect? One of the big things about nice creases though is the damage you get around the actually crease, or maybe I mean the light and shade around the actual crease. It seems to me they are quite complex things - and I have a way to go to get to grips with them. I found an old pic with a crease, but could not see how to transplant it successfully onto my pic. The pic is just for me by the way, & I love the effect of creases on simulated old pix :-)

This is just a thought...if the photo is supposed to be REALLY old, would the dog have a tag on his collar? I'm not sure when that began.

Hi Nan, I think you are right -the collar tab does looks strange. I removed it. Thank you for that!

Thanks again to everyone for your help!

[0lBaldy]

Re: Trying to age a pic

I think it depends on how much you want to distress and how far you are willing to go

I would definitely soften it up some and antique the color

After lightening using levels and curves I used a couple free actions called 'Antique Book' and 'Soft portrait' contained in a set from Mike Finn located at the bottom of the page @ Download all my FREE actions in one zip file ... and a couple different colored darken layers

I may have gone a bit to far but it is just an example

[TommyO]

Re: Trying to age a pic

Canna,
I like your final version. It looks old, well preserved, slightly damaged.

Just a quick note about duplicating the crease. There are always numerous ways to do things in Photoshop. What I referred to was duplicating the effect the crease had on the luminosity of the pixels. You could do this by "cloning" a crease from another image of similar pixel density, by either (a) working with the clone tool in the "luminosity" blend mode; or (b) working on the lightness channel after converting the image to LAB mode. Just play with it and it will reveal itself to you.

[Canna W]

Re: Trying to age a pic

I think it depends on how much you want to distress and how far you are willing to go

I would definitely soften it up some and antique the color

After lightening using levels and curves I used a couple free actions called 'Antique Book' and 'Soft portrait' contained in a set from Mike Finn located at the bottom of the page @ Download all my FREE actions in one zip file ... and a couple different colored darken layers

I may have gone a bit to far but it is just an example

Hi OlBaldy - and thank you so much for presenting a different take on this. I have some nice (effex) ageing filters and, after seeing your version, I tried some of them out on this pic. I didn't try them initially because I thought they would be too disruptive for such a fussy image (they always seem to work best for me with very simple, high contrast images). Anyway, after seeing your version I had a go, and the attached is what I came up with. I think it works well. Thank you again for your suggestion! I was well worth trying out.

Just a quick note about duplicating the crease. There are always numerous ways to do things in Photoshop. What I referred to was duplicating the effect the crease had on the luminosity of the pixels. You could do this by "cloning" a crease from another image of similar pixel density, by either (a) working with the clone tool in the "luminosity" blend mode; or (b) working on the lightness channel after converting the image to LAB mode. Just play with it and it will reveal itself to you.

Hi Tommy, That sounds extremely interesting, and not something I would ever have worked out for myself I will give it a go very soon! Thank you!

[Canna W]

Re: Trying to age a pic

Just a quick note about duplicating the crease. There are always numerous ways to do things in Photoshop. What I referred to was duplicating the effect the crease had on the luminosity of the pixels. You could do this by "cloning" a crease from another image of similar pixel density, by either (a) working with the clone tool in the "luminosity" blend mode; or (b) working on the lightness channel after converting the image to LAB mode. Just play with it and it will reveal itself to you.

Okay Tommy - I did it.

I flattened the dog image, then duplicated the bottom layer.

I made the 'creased' image the same hue as the dog image, so the pale crease would be the right colour.

Set the cloning tool to luminosity blend.

Cloned the creases from the 'creased' image onto the dog image.

I used a layers mask to remove a sort of unwanted clouding I had brought over with some of the crease in places.

I found it okay to clone the creases where they stood as a white line against a darker background. It didn't work where they crossed a white background (ie the woman's dress.) I just went back to where it crossed a darker background, and copied that again - to continue the crease across the dog pic.

Hopefully I did it right. Thank you for that!

I attach a copy of the 'creases' pic, and the dog pic now with creases. With thanks to Sassyarts at flickr for the creased pic...