This icon was made in Photoshop CS2 but it should work in newer versions as well. Some of the images in this tutorial are not mine. If you found this tutorial useful, credit would be appreciated.
This tutorial will show you how to create a warm vintage look using just coloured layers. It works with most images – but nothing too bright. It works well with images of people and the best thing is that it doesn’t need a lot of layers or fancy textures!
For the following icons, results courtesy of this tutorial, I’ve used images of characters from movies/television shows: Jane Eyre, Sheldon Cooper and Howard Wolowitz; and a photograph I took myself.
Credit for images: Tout le Cine, IGN, TV Fanatic, Indecisively.me (my own photo).
I’m going to use the Jane Eyre photograph in this tutorial. Start by pasting your image onto your canvas, after cropping and resizing. Then create a new layer. You can go to Layer > New > Layer then click OK, or press Ctrl + Shift + N.
Use the fill tool and fill the new layer with the colour #C7B299 and set the blending options to Overlay at 100% opacity. You can do this by double-clicking the layer preview in the side panel, or going to Layer > Layer Style > Blending options.
That brightens the image a fair bit.
Now create a new layer. Use the fill tool to fill it with #FFF799 and set the blending options to Darken at 100% opacity. You might not notice much difference but it yellows the image ever so slightly. If you want to toss it up, try a pale orange or red.
Create another new layer. This time fill it with #352E2C. Set the blending options to Screen at 100% opacity.
You can see that we’ve muted the darker colours and overall given the icon a “warm vintage” feel. If you find that the effect is too harsh or brightening, try reducing the opacity of some of your layers. Even just a little bit of brightness can be harsh, so fiddle with the colours or opacity a bit.
Save without merging your layers.
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