Give Photos a Vintage Look
NOSTALGIA REALLY ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE, particularly where photos are concerned. Dig out old pictures, and the signs of aging all add extra charm and ambience to the scenes they portray. Modern digital photos aren’t subject to the ravages of time, but thanks to a great free tool, called Vintager, you can inject some nostalgia into your recent snaps, and see how they might have aged had they been shot on film.
It’s simple to use: Vintager gives you a choice of 17 filters to try. Many apply different colored filters to inject some age and washed-out ambience, such as Blossom, Coconut, or Mint. Others go further. Candela adds a layer of artificial scratches, while Billie ages the photo by darkening it. You can then fine-tune these settings to get the perfect shot. Read on to find out how.
1 SELECT PHOTOS TO AGE
Point your browser at www.exeone.com/vintager to download and install Vintager. Once installed, leave “Launch Vintager” ticked, and click “Finish.” When the main window opens, click the folder button next to “Image,” to pick the photo or photos you want to edit. If editing multiple photos, hold Ctrl as you select each one. Click “Open” when you’re done.
2 CROP, ROTATE, RESIZE
The first of your selected photos will appear in the preview window. Use the “Crop” tab to select part of the photo if you want to focus on a specific part of the image. Use the “Rotate” tab to spin or flip the image, and finally the “Resize” tab to shrink the size of the finished photo. Click the anchor button before you begin to preserve its aspect ratio.
3 APPLY EFFECT
Now click one of the five preset buttons beneath the editing controls to apply an aging effect—more effects are hidden away, so use the arrow to the right of the preset to navigate between them all. Once you’ve found an effect you like, use the Color adjustment tab’s “Brightness” and “Contrast” sliders to fine-tune.
4 FRAME AND APPLY
Switch back to the first tab. Use the “Depth of Field” menu to lighten or darken the edges of your picture, and the “Frame” menu, if you want to pick your own frame, rather than go with the “Use predefined frames” option. Click “Apply.” Copies will be saved to the same folder as the originals, unless you’ve ticked “Overwrite old files.”