Creating Your Own Vintage Poster

Are you a fan of vintage posters? These posters can be very expensive. If you have knowledge on the various photo- editing software available, you can easily turn your photos to vintage posters and achieve that old school, reminiscent look. Photo-editing software like Photoshop would help you easily make your photo have that vintage effect that you see in old posters.

Here is an easy guide in creating your own vintage poster.

Preparing Your Image
Choose the image that you would like to turn into a vintage poster. Remove your main subjects from the background. You can use the pen tool or background eraser to do this. The background eraser would let you isolate subjects from the background by comparing the background color from the foreground color. Anything that is in great contrast with the background will not be erased.

For beginners, use a portrait that has as few subjects as possible. Turn the image to black and white. In Photoshop CS or higher, you can do this easily by clicking n the black & white button. If you are using a different software or an older version of Photoshop, you can de-saturate the image and it will give you the same desired effect.

Next, separate your subjects from each other. Do this by using the lasso or marquee tool. Cut and paste each subject on a new layer. Separating your subjects will allow you to work on each subject, without affecting the other layers.

Adding Color

Choosing and adding color on your picture is the most tasking part in this project. When choosing colors, keep in mind that colors effects you see on a vintage poster. Try to use these colors on your images. Remember that you want to achieve a slightly faded but vivid color effect.

Use color replacement or select color range to make your work easier. You can make create another layer, fill it with your chosen color and use masks to hide or show the color. For beginners who are having a hard time finding these options, you can just paint over the parts of your subject. Don't forget to apply a blend mode for your colors.

Flatten the image or convert it to smart object.

Texture
The most important effect you have to use is the texture effect. Use a texture effect that will give your image a slightly crumpled look. You can choose from the many paper texture effect available in your software. Also, don't forget to add a little shadow effect and use Gaussian blur filter. Using a blur effect will give you a hand-drawn effect and hide the fine details of your image.

Making the Poster

Copy and paste the edited image on a new file. Use tabloid for the new image size. If you want to have your work printed, use a resolution of 300 dpi and the CMYK color mode, otherwise, you can just use a resolution of 72 dpi and RGB color mode.

Create a back drop that blends well with the colors you used on your image and add a paper texture again on your image. Try to de-saturate the color of your paper texture if it does not go well with the colors on your poster.

Making your own vintage poster is easy. Experiment with colors and explore the different effects on your photo-editing software. Let your imagination fly and make your own personal vintage poster.