How To Make A Picture Look Like An Old Painting In Photoshop

There is something interesting about old photos. It reminds us not only of a time we don't know about, but also of the creation of old photography.

And to recreate the look of an old photo you don't have to step into a time machine. Instead, create the initial timeframe using a Vintage Photoshop Action before moving on to the more subtle steps.

Learn how to create the effect of an old photo below. And you can check out GraphicRiver for more inspiration.

What you will need to make a picture like an old painting

The following resources were used to create the effect.

• Woman's portrait
• Vintage Photoshop Action from Graphic River
• Scratches

Find inspiration

There is no better way to achieve a realistic photo effect than having references in hand. You'll find an entire repository of inspiration from Flickr's Creative Commons.

Here I have pre-selected three vintage shots because all three have different qualities that I can apply to this effect:

• Classic reference photo 1
• Classic photo reference 2
• Classic photo manipulation 3

Make note of these references in your head before you interfere with the real photo. The first reference photo, for example, is a photo full of captivating beauty. Besides the contrast, one of the things I notice the most are the tiny particles along the edges of the model and the photo.

This classy texture plays an important role in creating a classic look. However, the second and third reference photos affected my view the most.

Mark as well as a change in color. Sepia tones also exist: this is a process used to color monochrome images to make them more beautiful and also to increase durability.

How to make a picture look like an old painting in photoshop

Install Photoshop Action

Step 1

Before creating this effect, we have to install the Photoshop Action. Download the Vintage Photoshop Action from Graphic River to get started. Then open Photoshop and click Window> Actions to access the Actions panel.

Click the icon in the upper right corner and choose Load Actions to upload your new download to the dashboard.

Step 2

Edits that create complicated effects like this often have brushes, so be sure to download that! Go to Window> Brush Presets, and choose Replace Brushes from the options. Once your brushes have been replaced, we can move on to the next steps.

This is how our brushes from the Preset Manager look like.

Vintage Photoshop Action Application

Step 1

Applying action to your photos is really pretty easy. First make sure some things are in order. Open an image that is at least 1800 pixels wide, according to specific rules. Here I will be using the Woman's Portrait because the combs and costumes remind me of a moment in history.

Step 2

Make sure your photo is set to Background Layer lock mode. Then create a New Layer and use a Soft Round Brush to Fill the areas of the photo you want to apply this effect to. I will only focus on models and flowers. This is safer as it allows me to avoid the dispersion of any background while still paying homage to the classical styles of portrait photography.

Step 3

When you're ready, select Brush Player and hit Play on the Actions panel. Give your action a few minutes for it to run the effects as well as to build a new action group full of flawless adjustments. When it's finished, here are the initial results.

Not like what you would expect? No problem! We will fix it in the next steps.

Edit the results of the Photoshop Action

Step 1

As you can see our image now looks a bit messy. We'll need to do a little cleaning to get the effect we want. Our top priority is to get rid of these dirty looking parts. This makes our effect look more like a traditional artistic effect than a vintage photo.

First, Hide the Visibility of Color Options and Edge Lines Groups. Then go to the Photo Sketch Textures Group and lower the Opacity of all three textures to 30%, 68%, and 33% respectively.

Step 2

To reveal more of the original photo, select the Reveal Photo Layer and paint white on the black Layer Mask with a Soft Round Brush to reveal the woman again. Focus the visible part of her face so we can mimic the look like in old lenses.

Step 3

Now to the texture. The original texture is too stiff to make the photo look like the old photo. To avoid this (while still making the image look realistic) we need to blur all three of the Black Texture layers. Select each layer and go to Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 30 pixels.

Step 4

If the picture looks too blurry, Unhide the Visibility of the Increase Subject Detail Layer. It will immediately look sharper. But now we've lost the softness we wanted to emulate and most likely created the shallow depth of field of the "antique camera". So paint with black on the Layer Mask for the edges you want to achieve this subtle but blurred effect.

Give your pictures a more subtle look

Step 1

Continue experimenting with each Adjustment Layer until the best results are obtained. To finish off these effects we'll add a bit of "age" to the image. First go to Image> Canvas and add a half inch to the Width and Height of the canvas.

Remember, the pictures were real, and were artifacts, not like today's digital selfies. They've been scanned onto a hard drive so they'll have edges of paper or anything that might stick. Set the New Layer to the Clipping Mask of the Background Color Layer. Fill it with brown # b49564, lower the Opacity to 20%, and set the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Step 2

Blur some of the textures like we did before for the girl's face. Then select the BG_0 and CH_3 brushes from your brush pack and use them to smooth the texture around the edges.

Use those brushes to paint textures on the girl's face and hair. Use the Eraser Tool (E) to intensify areas where you used too much color.

Step 3

Now comes the scratches! Copy and Paste the scratch reference into a New Layer. Desaturate the photo to make it white and black and set the Layer Blend Mode to Lighten. Erase the parts you don't need or want with the Erase Tool (E).

I like the idea of ​​leaving the scratch on the girl's face and body because the scratches are quite inconvenient. Nobody wants any scratches on their photos, but they are the magic things that make modern photos unbelievably antique.

Step 4

Finish off this effect with a bit of contrast. Go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Brightness and Contrast and set Contrast to 25.

Final result

The beauty of reproducing classical photographs is the attention to the smallest details. Use a Vintage Photoshop Action to get started before tweaking the details to make it more realistic.

Collect a few more references to help you in the future and to learn which quality you like best. See below to learn more about more photo effects

Source: Blebees.com

source https://blebees.com/how-to-make-a-picture-look-like-an-old-painting-in-photoshop/