Photoshop tips and techniques to give new shots the vintage look
5 Vignette
Old-school cameras often had poor quality lenses that struggled to capture sufficient light in the corners of the frame. This meant underexposed corners, which results in a dark vignette.
Ironically, we can use the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop to get a similar effect.
You could add the vignette directly to your image, but for added control – or if you’re working on a multi-layer document – add the effect to a separate layer. To do so, Alt-click the New Layer icon to access the New Layer box. Choose Mode: Overlay then tick Fill With Overlay - Neutral Colour.
The Lens Correction filter is compatible with Smart Objects, so right-click on the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object.
To apply the vignette, go to Filter > Lens Correction then click the Custom tab and use the Vignette Amount slider to darken the corners.
6 Lens flare
Lens flare can help to make parts of the image look unevenly exposed or faded. Add a grey layer in the same way as the vignette technique then go to Filter >Render > Lens Flare. This is where Smart Objects show their worth: you can double-click the filter to reposition the flare.
7 Add borders
There are several ways to complete the effect with a retro border. To add a Polaroid-style border, grab the Rounded Rectangle tool and set the Radius to about 40px in the Options bar, then drag a rectangle over your image to add a shape layer.
Ctrl/Cmd+click the shape layer’s vector mask thumbnail in the Layers Panel to load a selection of the shape then go to Select > Inverse. Next, hide the shape layer and create a new layer. Go to Edit > Fill and choose Use: White or select any colour that you like. You can use the Stroke command to add a simple black border. Make a new layer then press Ctrl/Cmd+A to select all. Go to Edit > Stroke and set a width such as 50px. Choose a border colour then set Location: Inside and click OK. For rough edges, click the Add Layer Mask icon then grab the Brush tool and choose a rough brush from the Brush Preset picker. Load in brush sets by clicking the icon at the top right of the picker. Wet Media Brushes work well. Paint with black around the edges to rough up the border, varying brush tip size and brush Opacity.