So Awesome!

I sure wish I knew how to explain how I created this picture. Sitting at the computer this morning I discovered a way to take the colors from another picture and match them to the colors of your image to create a different feel in your original picture. The guy who taught me the way to do this explains it much better than I will. So, here is his website and the explanation.

Ok, so here is what I did. I know I should put more detail, but some of this just happened and was probably either a coincidence or a horrible mistake. Also, I'm sure I overdid a few things, but I was experimenting so I wasn't keeping track of each step. Darn...

First, here is the image (click on it for a larger, more detailed version):



Now, here is what happened (to the best of my recollection):

I took a picture of Landon's friend, Luke, while we were all playing at a park. The lighting wasn't great, as it was right in the middle of the day when the light is the most harsh.

I used the trick to match colors. I took the Mona Lisa (yes, theee Mona Lisa) and matched the colors from that image into my image of Luke. I think that it takes the color scheme from the Mona Lisa and matches it to the color scheme in your image. That's my guess, anyhow. Instantly noticing that the Mona Lisa colors brought a 70's vintage look to Luke's picture, I faded some things and de-saturated some colors (nothing major) so the vintage feel would really come out.

Next, I added a slight vignette to the picture (I don't really know why, I just like to. I think it focuses the eye on the subject and away from the outsides of the image).

Then I got thinking about Polaroid pictures from when I was a kid (Yes, the 70's). So I added some canvas space around the picture so it looked a little more "Polaroidy". The extra space around the picture was too white for a vintage picture, so I made it a little yellowy/browny. Then I "burned" the edges just a little for a faded, used, old look.

Lastly, I downloaded a messy texture from UrbanDirty (they're free, Free, FREEEE!), overlayed it onto the "Polaroid" picture of Luke, made the texture brownish/greyish, and brought the opacity of the overlay down a little so it wasn't overdone. Then I took the eraser tool and erased the texture from Luke's body so he wasn't all textured.

Uhmmmm, now the last step (really): I used the burn tool to make the picture look like people had grabbed it and held it a bunch and left grimy thumb prints all over it. Oh, and I added a drop shadow because they are cool.

There you have it. I hope I remembered everything. Here is the BEFORE/AFTER (click on it for a larger, more detailed version):



What I don't know (yet) is whether the Mona Lisa colors will give every picture a vintage 70's look. Not every picture should be vintage-ized, but some picture that wouldn't look great left as is might look interesting with a little 70's all over it!