Back in the Day

Make an image look like it's 70 years old with a vintage effect in this lesson.

Some of the skills used in this exercise:

• Use the Blur and Noise filters
• Add a texture layer
• Change layer modes and opacity
• Add a vignette effect

Resources to download:Original image, Paper Texture image, Scratches image

Start by reducing the quality of the original image.

Download and open the original image, a picture of two women (or use an image of your own). Start by making the picture a little blurry, Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur…, set the radius at about 2 or 3.

Now, add a little noise to the picture, Filters > Noise > RGB Noise..., select Correlated noise, uncheck Independent RGB, move the sliders left to 0.10.

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Convert the picture to grayscale, Colors > Desaturate... with defaults.

Next you'll yellow the picture.

Add a new transparent layer, Layer > New Layer..., named Gradient. Select the Blend tool and find the preset gradient Yellow Orange in the Gradients pallet. Apply the gradient to the Gradient layer from upper left to lower right then adjust the opacity to about 33%.

Give the picture a paper-like texture.

Download and open the Paper Texture image. Scale the texture image to match the dimensions of the original picture (1000 x 755, if you're using my picture), Image > Scale Image....

Copy the scaled image then paste it into the original picture, Edit, Paste as > New layer. Name that layer Paper. Change the layer Mode to Grain Extract with an opacity of 40%.

You can now add a few simulated scratches to the picture.

Download and open the Scratches image, scale to match your picture, and copy. The Scratches image may appear to be an empty transparent image.

Paste it into the original picture as a new layer named Scratches. Set the layer Mode to Overlay with a 50% opacity.

Select the Background layer and reduce the contrast to -15, Colors > Brightness and Contrast.

Add a vignette effect around the outside of the picture.

Use the Rectangle Select tool to make a selection with rounded corners (corner radius of 50) about 50 pixels inside the edges of the image.

Feather the selection about 100 pixels, Select > Feather... , and invert the selection, Select > Invert.

Add a new transparent layer named Vignette. With the Bucket Fill tool, fill the selection with black. Adjust the opacity to 50%.

You should now have a fairly authentic looking "vintage" picture. There's a lot of room to play with different settings in layer modes and opacity. Have fun!

Two Tone GIMP

Apply a Two-Tone Tint Effect to an Image

In this tutorial you'll see how a two-tone tinting effect can be easily applied to a picture using GIMP.

Among the tools and techniques you'll use in this tutorial ...

• Desaturate an image
• Set guides by percent
• Multiply layer mode
• Layer mask
• Blend tool

First open an RGB (color) picture to use as the base image for this tutorial. I found this nice image of kids playing football, but you can apply this technique to just about any RGB image.

Step 1 - Desaturate the image and adjust the brightness and contrast

Colors - Desaturate... Use the default settings in the Desaturate dialog.

Next, Colors - Brightness-Contrast...

In the Brightness-Contrast dialog, set the Brightness to 15 and the Contrast to 18. You may want to adjust these settings to work better for your base image.

The result should be something like this.

Step 2 - Set three horizontal guidelines to help define the tinted regions

Image - Guides - New Guide (by Percent)...

Set a Horizontal guide at 25%.

Set two more guides in the same way, one at 50%, one at 75%.

Note the percentages are 0% at the top and left to 100% at the bottom and right.

Step 3 - Apply a green tint to the lower half of the image

Create a new transparent layer named Green tint, Layer - New Layer...

Now fill this layer with green. You'll need to select the Bucket Fill tool and set the foreground color to green (00cb2f).

Your picture should now be solid green. From the Layers palette select Multiply from the Mode dropdown list.

You should now see your picture with a green tint applied to the entire image. Next, you'll use a layer mask to limit the tint to the lower portion of the image.

Layer - Mask - Add Layer Mask... Be sure White (Full Opacity) is selected in the dialog.

Next you need to paint a black to white gradient on the layer mask Select the Blend tool and be sure the colors are reset to the default black foreground and white background.

Draw your blend line from the top down to the 75% guide to get the following result.

Step 4 - Apply a yellow tint to the upper half of the image

Create a new transparent layer named Yellow tint in the same way you created the Green tint layer in Step 3, then fill this layer with yellow (ffff00).

Apply a layer mask to the Yellow tint layer as described in the previous step, but draw the blend line from the bottom up to the 25% guide to achieve the following.

Finally, remove all the guidelines. Image - Guides - Remove all Guides.

Finish up by flattening the image and saving it as a JPG.

That's it. I think it's a nice effect to use in some images. You might like to experiment with applying the two-tone effect vertically or even diagonally, maybe even along a curve.

Hope you picked up a new skill or idea. If you liked this lesson, please share it.

I'm trying something new. I'm embedding the map I used to write this tutorial. It might be a good post-tutorial reference.