Vintage "Postcard"

[Mesonoxian]

As a rule, I love vintage or vintage-looking photos. Knowing this, it shouldn't be too much of a leap to realize that I love doing this to my own pictures.

With the recent assignment of Still life: Flowers, I not only shot with vintage props and background, but also added my own effects.

What came out I think is similar to a vintage, or possibly victorian, postcard-type feel.

So, here's my "before" shot:




And my "after" shot:



How did I get there?
Here we go...

1.) I cropped the original image to achieve a tighter feel.

2.) Then I patched over where you can see the white cord, and duplicated the resulting layer.

3.) I adjusted the color of the base layer, giving it a deep reddish cast.

4.) I added an "old paper" texture layer in between, lowering the opacity so that it would hardly show.

5.) To the topmost layer, I applied an effect called "Difference Clouds." This created a dark version of the original photo, and I also lowered the opacity so that the top layer wouldn't overpower the others.

6.) This had a harsh look overall, so I then compressed the entire project, and added an effect called "softglow" to make the image as a whole more appealing.

7.) And voila! You get a very aged, antique appearance. A homemade vintage "postcard."

If you have any questions, I am more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability. And if you have any comments about the process, I am equally happy to hear those!

I hope you enjoyed this.

[summeresque]

Both before and after are fantastic!

[Mesonoxian]

Originally Posted by summeresque

Both before and after are fantastic!

Thank you, it's always nice to hear encouraging things.

[Shutterbugdeb]

I agree - I like both. They both have a vintage-y feeling to them. Thanks for sharing the steps!

[rosserx]

I agree with the others the PP is very well done. But I feel you cropped the image too tight and lost the "postcard" feel. Most postcards are a 4x6 aspect ratio. I think if you crop to that ratio you will get the postcard feel back. But I really like everything else!

[mmmmhhhhmmmm]

I agree with everyone. Great photo's before and after. Question: since you were able to 'age' the flowers and violin, would it have been possible to either dull (even more) or remove the approximately 60-75 degree angle 'light-reflection' on the closest part of the violin? That was the first thing that drew my attention, and personally, feel it is out of place. Agree? Regardless, a fantastic picture! TFS!

Robert

[gartea13]

What gorgeous pictures! What editing program did you use?

[Mesonoxian]

Originally Posted by rosserx

I agree with the others the PP is very well done. But I feel you cropped the image too tight and lost the "postcard" feel. Most postcards are a 4x6 aspect ratio. I think if you crop to that ratio you will get the postcard feel back. But I really like everything else!

Thank you! I used the tighter crop because of the original photo's background. You're right though, to truly achieve the "postcard" look I would re-format the dimensions.

Originally Posted by mmmmhhhhmmmm

I agree with everyone. Great photo's before and after. Question: since you were able to 'age' the flowers and violin, would it have been possible to either dull (even more) or remove the approximately 60-75 degree angle 'light-reflection' on the closest part of the violin? That was the first thing that drew my attention, and personally, feel it is out of place. Agree?

Thank you for the encouraging words. And yes, I do agree! Now that I see it I'll have to go fix that, and re-post.

Originally Posted by gartea13

What gorgeous pictures! What editing program did you use?

Thank you! I use a free program called The Gimp, it's a good alternative to PS for those of us who don't do a lot of professional editing. I've used it for about 7 years, and it's always done the job.

[Kyle]

Works for me. I liked the crop opposed to some of you.