Retro Tutorial

Tim Green

Hailing from Manchester in the UK, Tim Green is a freelance designer and illustrator, and an obsessive
collector of music and ephemera. He is now based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 

      You will learn how to surreal montages that have that authentic washed out vintage look. If you choose your own shots, it’s not important to ensure they have a vintage appearance. In fact, it’s probably better if they don’t, as we want a consistent retro look that is best applied in Photoshop. What matters more is to ensure that the photos do not contain clothes, hairstyles, architecture or other elements that are obviously recent.  
     
      Step 1
       Create a new A4 portrait Photoshop document in RGB mode. Surfer as an important element in the piece, place asuitable photo at the top.

       Step 2

       Next, place a beach scene in the centre section of the document. Select the Eraser tool E and, using the settings shown and create a smooth transition between the two images.

       Step 3

       The next image added which had a clearly defined foreground to add perspective and depth to the piece which meant to blend it in. Simple used the Lasso tool L to select the pier, the person lying on it and the handrails, and pasted the selection into the bottom third of the document.

       Step 4

       Add a VW Camper van and the sandy beach it was parked on bit.ly/qC30cB. This was meant to be part of the foreground, repeated the procedure of Step 2 to blend it in and soften the edges. Change the van layer’s blending mode to Screen which made the contents vanish because the background layer is white by default. It can be can fix by selecting the background layer and inverted the colour to black Cmd/Ctrl + I.

       Step 5

       Once the composition is complete, it’s time to work on the colours. First, go to the Adjustments panel and add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack so that it affects all the other layers. Set the Brightness to +10 and Contrast to +20. This gives some bolder tones to work with.

       Step 6

       Here’s the important bit for that faded vintage feel. Add a Curves adjustments layer at the top of the layer stack. Select Red from the channels drop-down menu or hit Alt + 3 and adjust the red curve as shown essentially to increase the contrast in that channel.

       Step 7

       Hit Alt + 4 and tweak the green curve as shown, upping the contrast though not as much this time.

       Step 8

       Finally, hit Alt + 5 and adjust the Blue curve as shown, reducing the contrast a little. Vintage-style effect, although obviously it’s too garish as is.

       Step 9

       To rectify this, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack, and check the Colorize box. Use the hue and saturation settings shown to achieve a sepia tone and change the layer’s opacity to 40%. This gives a more muted look.

       Step 10

       To add to the vintage feel, scanned the back of a cloth-bound book to use as a textured overlay. You can download a texture from bit.ly/bKXsOa. Place the texture, ensuring it covers the whole canvas, then set the texture layer’s blending mode to Screen and the opacity low enough that the effect is subtle.

       Step 11

       At this point add more details, starting with another beachside crowd bit.ly/f1BeAI. Trie different layer blending modes to see what helped it fit best. Soft Light and moved the layer behind the pier/person to keep that edge clean.

       Step 12

       Add a sunset photo bit.ly/oSXCJ8, flipped horizontally to give the top of the image more interest. Some blending at the bottom of the sunset image was necessary as described in Step 2. Then set the layer’s blending mode to Overlay.

       Step 13

       The top area was looking a bit too washed out now, especially the surfer. To strengthen the colours, portion of sky from the VW Camper van image and placed it at the top, with an Overlay blending mode and with the opacity at 60%.

       Step 14

       Add some non-photographic elements by drawing circles, taking their colour from the main image with the Eyedropper tool. Merged all the layers containing the circles Cmd/Ctrl + E.

       Step 15

       To finish, duplicated the merged layer and experimented with its blending mode and also with layer positions, trying to find the most pleasing way to integrate the graphic elements into the final composition.