Turn A Photo Into An Old Poster Part 3

This is part three of my tutorial on turning a photo into an old poster. Be sure and check out part one

Step 21

Set to Filter Noise Add Noise and set the “Uniform”.

Step 22

The rectangle shape you have created now has stains as well as an old-looking texture. But no old piece of paper is considered as “old” if its edges are neat. That is why you should be create some rough edges around the rectangle “Basic Shape” which you have created in the first steps the active layer by clicking on its thumbnail in the layers palette. When you have done so, brush icon will appear in front of it.

Step 23

Create a selection based on the rectangular shape by clicking Ctrl + click on its thumbnail. Go to the Menu Select Modify Contract, and introduce a value of 5 pixels.

Step 24

Add a mask to the current layer (which is still “Basic Shape”) based on the current selection. Do this by clicking on the “Add layer mask” icon which is found in the layers palette. Go to the main Menu and select Filter Brush Strokes Spatter For both “Spray Radius” and “Smoothness” enter a value of 15 for and click OK.

Step 25

You will have at this point an image having rough edges, but if you will zoom further on the image, you will notice that its edges are aliased, not smooth. Make sure that the mask of the Basic Shape layer is active (it is active is it has a double border). To obtain smooth edges, you must apply some blur: Filter Blur Gaussian Blur. Enter a value of 1 to the Radius and then click “OK”. Having the mask active, select in the Menu Image Adjustments Levels. In the input value boxes, enter an input value of 160 for black and an input level value of 195 for white.

Step 26

Now you have an image that pretty much resemble an old piece of paper. You can further add rips to the image and have its margins darken. If you want to add rips to the shape, use the Brush tool which you will find in Photoshop’s tool bar. Select a round brush. Its main characteristics should be: Master Diameter of 1 pixel and the Hardness of 0%, Mode should be normal and flow and opacity should both be 100%.  It is important that the active layer is the mask of the Basic Shape.

Step 27

Hold the D key to make sure that your fore- and background color are black and white (everything that is black on the mask will hide that specific part of the poster, so we have to make sure that our foreground color is black. If it isn’t, then just press the X key on your keyboard to switch fore- and background color).Having the brush selected, just paint some rips at random. Before you add such a rip, it is recommended to zoom in the picture (a value of between 300-800% should be ok to have a more precise control over what you are doing).

Step 28

You can darken the picture’s edges. Activate the top layer and click on the “Create a new layer” icon. Name it “Dark Edges”. Go to Menu Edit > Fill as shown in figure 24 and select 50% Gray in the box that reads “Use”. Click “OK”. For this layer, change the blending mode “Soft Light”. Clip the layer (Ctrl + G) and select the Burn tool found in the tool bar.Select a medium soft brush (set its size to about 30 and set the range to “Shadows”. Keep the “exposure” setting to 100%.Move the cursor over some parts of the edge of the poster. Don’t make the entire edge darker. You can leave some areas like so to give the entire image a more natural look. After you’re done, switch to a slightly larger soft brush (set its size to 70 and set its exposure to about 50%) and make the inside of the edge in some area a little darker. After adding the darker edge, you could increase the opacity of the Texture layer from 25% to 35%.

Step 29

Some further adjustments can be added if you want to go further with the picture: you can add some scratches, you can fold the paper’s corners, add text or even a picture over the “old” looking paper.

Step 30

Save your resulted image with the desired name and extension. 

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