How to Create an Old-Time Portrait with Vignette in Photoshop CS2

If you love looking at those unidentified antique photographs at the local antique shop or studying old portraits of famous people from the late 1800's and wish you could create a stunning, timeless portrait like that for your wall with you or a family member as the subject, you can! You can take an existing photograph and convert it to an old-time portrait with vignette suitable for framing or your family's heirloom photo album.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PhotoShop CS2
• Digital color photograph of an individual taken on a solid colored or neutral background

1. Open PhotoShop CS2 and open the digital color photograph you would like to turn into a timeless classic portrait with a vignette. (Select File, then Open -or- Ctrl + O. Then pick the file you want to open and click on the "Open" button or simply hit "Enter" on your keyboard.)

2. Convert the color photograph to a black and white photograph or grayscale image. Select Image, then Mode and then Grayscale.

3. Adjust the shades of black, white and gray in the photograph until they are pleasing to you. Select Image, then Adjustments, then Levels. Adjust the input levels until the photograph has the desired amount of contrast and then click on "OK."

4. Create the vignette. Use the elliptical marquee tool to draw an oval around the face in the photograph with a soft feathered edge. Hit the "M" button on your keyboard to select this tool.

5. In the marquee toolbar at the top, you will see the word "Feather" and a box where you can input the number of pixels you want to "feather" at the edge of your selection so it is not a solid, crisp selection but rather a soft edge. Type "25" into this box. Click on the top left portion of the photograph and hold and drag down toward the lower right portion of the photo to draw an oval marquee around the face, then release. You will see the blinking marquee around your selection.

6. Move the oval marquee selection as necessary so it is centered over the face and between all four edges. Left click the mouse, hold and drag the oval where you want it, then release the mouse.

7. Invert the selection so you are actually selecting all of the photograph except the oval area around the face. Click on Select, then Inverse -or- Type Shift + Ctrl + I.

8. Fill the background with a solid color. Select Edit, then Fill -or- Type Shift + F5. A "Fill" pop-up box will appear on your screen. Where it says "Contents," choose either the "Foreground color," "Background color," "Black," "White" or "50% gray" from the "Use" drop down menu. Then click on "OK" or simply hit "Enter" on your keyboard.

9. Turn off the blinking marquee so you can see your finished vignette. Click on Select, then Deselect -or- Type Ctrl + D.

10. Convert the grayscale image to either RGB (for most photo printers) or CMYK (for most commercial printers) mode. Select Image, then Mode, then RGB Color--or CMYK Color, as needed.

11. Save the photo with a new name. Select File, then Save As -or- Type Shift + Ctrl + S. Rename the photo or just add "bw vignette" to the end of the existing file name to indicate the file is now a black and white image with a vignette. Click on "OK" or simply hit "Enter" on the keyboard.

12. Print the photo on your home printer, upload it to an online photo printer or save it to portable media so you can take it to your local department or discount store for printing.

Tips & Warnings

• You can vary the width of the "feathered" edge of your photograph selection by decreasing the number of pixels in step number three to make a smaller feathered edge selection or increasing the number of pixels to make a wider feathered edge selection.
• Remember to convert the image back to RGB or to CYMK, as images in the grayscale mode do not print properly with some printers.

Resources

• National Association of Photoshop Professionals