Do you have ordinary photos that you want to turn into works or art? Here’s plenty of examples of photos mainly from the mid 80s that have been made to look antique or painted. They were film prints scanned on an old scanner so there were many little dust spots or scratches eliminated in Photoshop and then to make them look painted, I used the dry brush filter and sometimes the watercolour filter too. To age the other photos, I adjusted the value levels, adding in more black, more white and lightened the midtones. I also didn’t push the saturation all the way down to zero but added a little green to them as my local photo printer tends to print grey with a slightly pinkish hue that I don’t like. The last seven photos are digital.
I’ve noticed with a lot of home decor photos online that when making a gallery wall, that a lot of the photos are quite light instead of having a lot of black and many do much more than 30% negative (or white) space so I’ve been experimenting with that too. There’s lots of little painted landscapes on bookshelves now so I’ve been seeing if I can make my own. It works out to be a lot cheaper.
I think this is Scotland. I altered the colouring to look like early morning, took out the road and used the dry brush filter.
Think this is Scotland too, I removed the sheep and fences. I done this one in several colourways.
I love greens but have a soft spot for the original colours.
This is the Roman Baths, Bath, England and close to the original colour scheme. I took out the 1920’s style window on the right and cleaned it all up. Here are some more versions of it depending on what other artwork it’s hung with. I love having options.
A lighter version but not quite sepia. I love the green too much.
Looking more vintage with the colour drained.
And finally black and white. Each of these have their own personality.
Taken in 2008. I left a few heads in at the bottom as they would be covered by a mat in a frame. This one benefitted from the midtones being lightened quite a bit. The angels still have a little colour to them.
This was cropped and a few things like a railing and half a car were removed. Those two blank plaques could have something written on them. This is Palazzo Dell’art Dell Lana, Florence, Italy according to Google Lens. I love the lighting.
This blurry photo was made to look even worse until it was cool again. Like the other vintage style photos, I used a lot of contrast to give it that gritty look. This is Melbourne, Victoria.
Another one in Melbourne, Victoria, on the corner of the Bourke St Mall. I took out the adverts in the window at the end of this walkway and the stuff leaning up against the wall in the left corner.
Here’s the Three Sisters, Katoomba, Blue Mountains, NSW. The weather is different every day there so to get the fog like this is really cool. And for the record, yes, you may need a jumper even in January.
Another from Melbourne, Victoria. I used a lot of contrast to give the shadows. It also looks great in sepia with a little green tinge.
And finally the Nullabor. I created a low image to experiment with lots of negative space.
Fiona Schiffl 