Graphics Zone - Sepia Photo

BONEFISH

How to Make a Color Image into an Old Worn Sepia Photo

by BarryHilton, Adult NetSurprise

First we'll start off with our original color photo... if you want to follow this tutorial using our example photo, right click and 'Save As' on the image below...

We need to make our picture Grey Scale (like a Black and White photo). To achieve the best results you need to Desaturate the image which removes the color. Go to the Images menu at the top of the screen and select Adjust, then Desaturate. This will give you the image below...

Now, go to the Images menu at the top of the screen again and select Mode, then Greyscale. This makes the image a Greyscale format from where we can apply a Duotone (two color) Mode.

Next, go to the Images menu at the top of the screen again and select Mode, followed by Duotone. This will bring up the Duotone Menu. On the Duotone menu, change the type to Duotone from Monotone, you'll see an additional color appear below.

Change the first (Black) color to a mid-dark yellow-brown by clicking on the color box and using the color selector to find your color... In our example we used the color below... To change to this color just type B17500 into the # box. Type a name or number in the name box on the Duotone menu, each color must have a name, even if it's a made up one - :o)

Note: If a Pantone color selector comes up (this will depend on your version of Photoshop), Select Pantone Coated and Color 456 which will give similar results as in our following example below.

Next, we need to alter the White color to a light yellow. In our example we're using a Pantone Color, Change the Book to Pantone Coated and type the number 459 to select a light sandy yellow color, as in our example below...

Click OK when you're happy with your colors and you should have something like our example below...

We have our sepia photo but now we need to add dirt and scratches to make our image look old and worn... Go to the Layers Menu at the top of the screen and select New, then Layer to add a new layer. Select the Paint Bucket Tool from the main tool bar and fill the new layer with white. Then go to the Filters menu at the top of the screen and select Noise, Add Noise and enter the values below...

This will put another layer over our picture, now we need to make our picture stand out again... Go to the Layers Options Menu (with all the layers listed use Window > Show Layers if you can't see it). At the top of the Layers Options Menu change Normal to Multiply (this will remove the white background of the noise layer) and change the Opacity to 50% to soften the noise.

Now, we need to add some scratch lines like an old film... So, make another new layer, go to the layer menu at the top of the screen and select New, then Layer. Now, select the Single Column Marquee Tool from the main Tool Bar (if you can't see it click and hold on the Marquee Tool, top left, to bring up the marquee selection menu.

Click on your image to place a line marquee, then while holding shift click a few more times to add more lines. Then select the Paint Bucket Tool from the Main Tool bar. Click the little black and white boxes at the very bottom of the Tool bar (just under the Foreground and Background colors), to reset your colors. Then click in your image to fill your lines with the brown color.

Note: On some versions of Photoshop you will need to zoom in to fill each line separately

Now, go to the Layer Options Menu again, change Normal to Multiply and Opacity to 20%. You should have something like our example below...

Now, add another new layer by going to the Layers Menu at the top of the screen and selecting New, then Layer. Now, repeat the steps above for adding lines, only this time change the Opacity to 30%. Add your new lines in different places to your original set of lines. This will give you a variation in line darkness and make the image look more realistic like our example below...

To finish off we'll add another 'Noise' layer. Make a new layer, go to the Layer menu at the top of the screen and select New' then Layer. Select the Paint Bucket Tool from the main Tool Bar and fill your new layer with white. Then, go to the Filters Menu at the top of the screen and select Noise, then Add Noise, using the values below.

On the Layers Options Menu, change Normal to Screen and Opacity to 20%, this will lighten the photo adding more noise and detail to the hair...

And we're done!

In addition, if you like you can add another new layer and draw some hairs using the smallest Airbrush, setting it to Multiply and leaving the Opacity at 100%... like in our example above!