creating a beach-worn digi photo...

Ooh, the beach... tomorrow's the last day of school, so it's ALMOST that time of year again, and I'm ready for it! I played a bit with one of last year's beach photos, and thought I'd share the digi specifics of what I did. I wanted to make my photo look sun-faded, hazy and worn out, kind of like I just found it at the bottom of last year's beach bag.

Using PSE 5.0, I started out with a 7 x 5 transparent canvas, dragged my photo onto it, and resized & placed it exactly where I wanted it.


In the Special Effects box, I chose "photo effects," and its "image effects," then applied "tint sepia" to my layer...


And I applied "old photo."


I then had 3 layers ~ the original, the "sepia," and the "old photo." First, I made sure that the "old photo" layer was chosen, and I reduced its opacity to 40%...


Then I selected the "sepia" layer, and reduced its opacity to 30%.


Next, I merged all three layers together, and applied "soft flat color."


I merged those two layers (a new one had once again been created automatically), again applied "tint sepia," and reduced its opacity to 50%. Once again, I merged the layers, and applied "color fade horizontal." A new layer was created for the fade, and I reduced its opacity to 50%...


I merged those layers, then duplicated the layer. In the Special Effects box, I chose "layer styles," and its "image effects," and applied "circular vignette" to the top layer, then reduced its opacity to 50%...


I again merged the layers, and duplicated the layer. I applied "sun faded photo" to the top layer, and reduced its opacity to 30%.
Of course, all of the percentages that I listed may vary for other photos, depending on the photo's brightness and what look you ultimately want to achieve. Just play and discover!