Hand-Tinted Vintage Postcard in Photoshop

By Dawn Pedersen · 05/11/2009 ·

Part Two: Hand-Tinting Effect

To create the hand-tinted effect in lighter areas, we paint on a new layer set to the Color blend mode. In darker areas, we set the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light. We’ll start with the lady’s dress and shoes, which are very light.

Add a new layer at the top and name it “blue”. Set its blend mode to Color.

Blue layer set to Color blend mode

Select a very light blue for your foreground color. I chose R: 224, G: 242, B: 243.
Select a brush at 0% Hardness and paint on the “blue” layer over the white dress and shoes.

The image below shows where to paint. You can change the brush size on-the-fly by using your [ and ] keys (smaller and larger, respectively.) It does not need to be perfect, because we are creating a “hand-painted” look. Use the eraser tool if you go outside an edge too far.

Where to paint with blue

Here’s what your photo should look like with the “blue” layer set to the Color blend mode.

Blue dress and shoes

Notice that the vintage card has deeper blue where the painter put on a thicker stroke.

Darker blue creases

Let’s create something similar or the dress.

Create a new layer at the top and name it “dkr blue”. Set its blend mode to Color.
Change your foreground color to a darker blue. I chose R: 184, G: 231, B: 235.
Change brush to 100% Hardness, and paint in the creases of the dress.

The image below gives you an idea of where to paint.

Where to paint darker blue

Here’s what your photo should look like with the “dkr blue” layer set to the Color blend mode.

Darker blue set to Color blend mode

Now paint the lilies pink.

Select the Quick Selection tool.
Up in the Control panel (Options bar), set the brush size to 6px.
Paint inside the lilies to select them. Again, the edges need not be perfect.

Select the lilies

Create a new layer at the top and name it “pink”.
Change your foreground color to a dark pink. I chose R: 255, G: 123, B: 123.
Edit > Fill. Set Use: to Foreground Color. Click OK.

Pink lilies

Time for our third color: green. We will paint the lily pads, which are very dark. Because of this darkness, we will set the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light instead of Color.

Create a new layer at the top and name it “green”. Set the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light
Change your foreground color to a light green. I chose R: 238, G: 255, B: 161.
Select a brush with 0% Hardness.
Paint the lily pads on the left and the grass in the bottom-right corner. Avoid the lilies, and leave some of the bright undersides of lily pads untouched.

Here’s where to paint. There are lily pads further back, but painting them will steal focus. To get clean edges around the lilies, Ctrl+click (Mac: Cmd+click) on the layer thumbnail for the “pink” layer and press your Delete key.

Where to paint green

Here’s what your photo should look like with the “green” layer set to the Soft Light blend mode.

Green layer set to Soft Light

Here’s the final result of our hand-tinting:

Final result of part one, hand-tinting

Next: Part Three: Creating the Vintage Feel

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Category: Photoshop, Tutorials

Tags: blend modes, colorize, intermediate, Photoshop, postcard, Smart Filters, Smart Objects, vintage

Comments

8 Comments

By huwaw69, 05/13/2009 @ 6:02 am

wow great effect man! thanks for this guide, the output is really awesome
By Dawn Pedersen, 05/13/2009 @ 7:13 am

Thanks, huwaw!
By freemoon, 05/14/2009 @ 12:32 pm

Lovely. Thanks a lot!
By Dawn Pedersen, 05/14/2009 @ 3:18 pm

Thanks and you’re welcome, freemoon.
By gavin, 07/21/2009 @ 7:30 am

hey i love the tutorial, the hand tinted effects were very cool, but i just wanna say one thing.
if you look at the vintage picture, you see that the only places in focus are the what lands in the cameras depth of field. now when you blurred everything in the background but unblurred the lilies, that wouldn’t make sense from a camera viewpoint. you wouldn’t have objects that were blurred , unblurred, blurred, unblurred etc as you went along the plane. so it really gives the new postcard a selective blurred feel, which takes away from it’s authenticity. it’s just hard to believe that a postcard from the 20′s or 30′s would have selective blurring.
other than that i loved the tutorial!
By Dawn Pedersen, 07/22/2009 @ 1:53 pm

Thanks for the feedback, Gavin! I was taking a little artistic license in a detour from the true vintage look.
By Lesya, 10/25/2011 @ 3:00 am

I didn’t get one thing: how from light blue you got glowy azzure?