Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I’m going to show you how to create the look of an aged, 19th century daguerreotype photo.
Before we begin, If you're not already a subscriber to my channel, click the small, Subscribe
button at the lower, right corner or the link in my video's description below.
I provided a Photoshop template that you can download, so you can follow along.
Its link is in my video's description below or project files.
It includes 2 layers: a texture of scratches and a daguerreotype photo texture.
If want to rotate the template to make it vertical, go to Image, “Image Rotation”
and “90 degrees Clockwise”.
To see the entire document on your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Open a photo that you'd like to use for this project.
It can be color or black and white.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
To place it onto the template, make sure your Move Tool is open
and drag it onto the tab of the template.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
To resize and reposition the photo, press Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool.
If you can't see the Transform's entire bounding box, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0 to fit it onto your canvas.
Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt or Option
+ Shift as you drag it in or out.
To reposition it, go inside the bounding box and drag the photo.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Drag the photo below the bottom layer.
To zoom in or out, press Ctrl or Cmd and the plus or minus key on your keyboard.
Click the eyeball icons next to the textures to temporarily hide them.
Click the Adjustment layer icon and click, "Black & White", which makes a color image appear grayscale.
Change the Preset from "Default" to "High Contrast Blue Filter".
This filter will ultimately make our image more dramatic, however does darken areas that
we don't want too dark.
In this case, I'd like to bring back the brightness in the areas of the face and uniform that
are presently in shadow.
To do this, click the photo to make it active and make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
We'll merge the black and white adjustment layer with the copy of the photo by Shift-slicking
the adjustment layer to make it active, as well and pressing Ctrl or Cmd + E.
Open your Dodge Tool and check your foreground color.
If it's not white, press "D" on your keyboard to make the colors default to black and white
and then, press "x" to invert them.
Now, white is your foreground color.
Open your Brush Picker.
We'll adjust the Dodge Tool's size in a moment.
Make its Hardness: 0%.
Choose "Midtones" and make the Exposure: 100%.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To adjust the size of the Dodge Tool, first make sure your CapsLock key isn't on and press
the left or right bracket key on your keyboard.
Then, brush over the areas you want to brighten.
Make the daguerreotype texture visible and active and change its Blend Mode to "Soft Light".
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to make a copy it and change its blend mode to "Multiply".
We'll brighten areas of our image by clicking the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next
to the copy of the texture.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
You can adjust the brush's size by typing it in here or by pressing your bracket keys.
Its Hardness is 0% and its Opacity and Flow are both 100%.
Brush over those areas you want to brighten.
This is revealing the original daguerreotype texture under the layer mask.
Make the Scratches layer visible and active and change its blend mode to "Screen".
Next, we'll give our daguerreotype a sepia color.
Click the Adjustment layer icon and click "Hue/Saturation".
Check "Colorize" and for the "Hue", type in 36.
Our daguerreotype photo itself is now finished, however, to complete its look, let's add hand-written
text on the bottom.
First, we'll darken the bottom with a soft, dark vignette in order to see our text better.
Scroll to the bottom and make the black and white photo active and make a new layer above it.
We'll add the dark, vignette gradient in the empty layer.
Make your foreground color black.
Open your Gradient Tool and make sure the Linear gradient icon is active.
Open your gradient thumbnails and click the "Black to Transparent" preset.
Go to the bottom of the image and press and hold the "Shift" key as you drag the tool
straight up approximately this much.
We'll can adjust its opacity, if we want, after we add our text.
Open your "Horizontal Type Tool" and make your foreground color white by pressing "x"
to invert your foreground and background colors.
I'm using a font called, "Emily Austin".
This font beautifully captures the quill pen handwriting of the 19th century and earlier.
If you'd like to use it, I provided its link, as well.
If you're not sure how to install fonts, watch my tutorial showing you how.
I provided that link, as well.
I'll make its size 35 points, however, feel free to adjust its size.
Its anti-aliasing is Sharp and left alignment.
Click on your document and type out your text.
To center it horizontally, open your Move Tool and press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select your document.
Click the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon.
Then, deselect it.
To lower or raise your line of text, press the Down or Up arrow on your keyboard.
I'd like the text to look more delicate, so I'll Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the large "T"
of my text layer to make a selection of the entire line.
I'll hide the text and make a new layer above it.
I'll go to Select, Modify and "Contract".
Contract it 1 pixel.
Then, I'll click OK or press press Enter or Return.
I'll fill it with white by pressing Alt or Option + Delete, which fills it with the foreground color.
Then, I'll deselect it.
I'll reduce its opacity to 80% to let a little of the background show through.
I'll make the gradient vignette active and reduce its opacity to 80%, as well.
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This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!