help me with that washed out look

[edmDusty]

I've been trying to figure out how to do the washed out look like this



some other examples here and here and here


here's some tries I made but I'm not very happy with them


and here and here

[private]

Can you post an original so I can play - it might take a day or so b/c I will be busy today....

[windrider86]

I could be wrong but to me they appear to have been desaturated, given a soft blur and had noise and a vignette added to them.
Something like how photography looked back about 30 years ago

[edmDusty]

you can download the what I grabbed for the shot out of camera raw editor here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edmdust...61869/sizes/o/

It was already soft but I liked the angelic look she had on her face so that's why I wanted to do something like this.

[oldwolf]

Originally Posted by windrider86

I could be wrong but to me they appear to have been desaturated, given a soft blur and had noise and a vignette added to them.
Something like how photography looked back about 30 years ago

have to agree with windy on this. i pulled your original and got about the same color when i took the saturation down to about -57 in psp x2. all i needed after that was to add some noise, apply a soft focus and add the vignette.

[candleman]

as above. i'd also like to suggest adding a layer converted to Sepia after those steps, and set that to roughly 50% opacity (probably a bit less)
that will give a similar colour impregnation across the whole image.

i've also done tha same but adding a blue photofilter(82), which calms the mood allot too.

[i speak in math]

hows this?

From Misc

i edited the curves and levels, reduced some color saturation a bit and added a gradient map in overlay mode. pretty easy moves if you like the effect.

[JeNniFer E]

I played with Hues/Saturation, Curves, Levels, Diffuse Glow, and adjusting the Opacity.







I think the last one may be a little over done.

[Jim Poor]

Exposure isn't the way to get there on this image.

Try decreasing the contrast a good bit and then in PS do Selective color and reduce the blacks in the neutrals and the blacks in the blacks. Then add a solid color layer that is a bit yellow and reduce the opacity to taste.