How to Create “Retro” Photographs using Photoshop

Posted on 27. Jul, 2011 by tutorials007 in Photoshop Tutorials 133 views

Before

After

Old is the “NEW” new, and if you’re looking to stand out from the crowd, you can apply these basic Photoshop brush and blending tips and tricks below to create a “retro” look that will make your drab images look like expensive, trendy pop art. In this particular example, we go Andy Warhol using some simple steps.

1. First, take the image you want to play around with and convert it to Grayscale using the Mode command.
2. Now give the image a higher contrast to make the black and whites stand out by using Image > Adjustment > Brightness/Contrast. We suggest settings of +25 for Brightness and +55 for Contrast.
3. After the image is black and white (and shades of grey), set Mode back to RGB again so we can play around with the primary colors Warhol was known for.
4. However, the stark contrast will require some softening before we apply color to it. We will then have to soften the image by using Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), about 2-3 pixels to suit your image.
5. Now Duplicate Layer and apply Soft Light to the image copy in the Layers tab. This sets the blending mode.
6. Finally, we will apply a bit of color to the image by going to Layer > New Fill Layer and choosing Solid Fill. Make sure to set the Color Fill Mode to Lighten to brighten things up in your future pop art masterpiece. Whatever Color you choose, in the next box, you will still need to use Color Picker to choose a specific color. Go wild!

Finish up by Flattening Image.

Last but not least, remember to get that true “Warhol” image, use this process to apply different colors to the same image then tile them on a brand new canvas.