Creating a Classic Photograph Effect in 7 Steps

Putting together a pre-1920s photographic effect is easier than you think. In the earlier days of photography, camera and film quality generally produced dull, hazy photos lacking contrast and sharpness. Our goal here is to recreate this look with some Photoshop magic. This tutorial should help spice up your online portfolio.

Let's achieve this effect.

Step 1) First, let's start off with an image. The one I chose is a free image from iStockPhoto, something they give away every week. While everyone doesn't love the police for whatever reason, I'm sure we can all agree on loving firefighters, so we'll work with that image. You might consider using an image from your portfolio and adding the finished photograph up for display in your showcase.

Step 2) Once you've got your image handy, open up the Channel Mixer (Image > Adjustments) and click the Monochrome option on the bottom left of the Channel Mixer.  Set Red, Green, and Blue to +20, +30, +50, respectively. Click OK.

Step 3) Next, duplicate your layer (Ctrl/Cmd+J) which will give you your original background layer plus a duplicate copy of that same layer. We'll be working on this new one. Add some Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur) to your new layer. Set it to a radius of 4.0 pixels.

Add a layer mask by clicking the Add Layer Mask button in the layer panel.

Step 4) What we need to do next is add more focus onto the face. In Ye Olden Times cameras lacked the sophistication they do now, so objects had a tendency to blur on exposure. However, the focal point of the lens provided a bit more sharpness, so let's create that effect to bring more focus to the fireman's face.

Select the brush tool (B) and set the master diameter to a very large size, say, roughly the diameter of the man's face. In the case of my file we're looking at 960px, but your mileage may vary so try experimenting a bit until you find the right size. Set the brush's hardness to 0%, opacity to 45%, flow to 55%, foreground color to black, and enable airbrush capabilities by clicking the appropriate button.

When you've done that, just click your big, beautiful brush over what you'd like the focal point to be, in this case, the firefighter's face. About 2 clicks should be enough, any more than that and you'll be creating too much sharpness. Once you've done that, merge all of your layers (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+E.)

Step 5) Now we need to add a bit of glow to simulate the Ye Olden Times old-timey uncoated lenses. Add some Diffuse Glow (Filters > Distort.) Set your graininess to 3, glow to 3, and glow amount to 10.

Step 6) Fantastic. Let's get rid of the colors with a black and white gradient map. Create a new Gradient Map (Image > Adjustments), click the arrow and select the black and white option. Click OK.

Step 7) The final step is to give it that subjectively cool sepia effect. This is simple using a Photo Filter (Image > Adjustments) and selecting the Sepia option. Add some more density to the default 25%, maybe going anywhere between 30-40%.

There you have it, a Hollywood firefighter circa 1915.