With Photoshop, you could make an old photo effect. When a photo looks old, it often has a greater effect - it reminds you of all those old days, doing whatever you are doing on the photos etc. It could therefore be used in a photo album cover, banner, a layout, or simply for fun! The first few steps in this tutorial teaches you how to make your photo look good, so you could read up to there if you're not interested in making it look like an "old photo". There are also old photo brushes available on Faded-chimera, so if you want to enhance your designs, feel free to download the free brushes.

 

1) Choose a picture you would like to modify and open two windows of the same photo on Photoshop.

2) Choose one of the two photos to edit first. On your selected photo, go to Images > Mode > Grayscale, and then click Merge if it prompts you. Your photo would then become black and white.

3) Now, select the gray image (Ctrl + A) and then copy it onto the colorful one (Ctrl + V) so that it is on top of the colorful layer.

4) Then, select a layer option for this grayish layer. Select Screen.

5) When you have done so, you should now have 2 layers. Go to Layer > Merge Down.

6) Now go to Colour Balance.

7) Try to make it look like an old picture. It should be yellowish and brownish. You can follow my colour balance values.

8) After you have changed the colours. You should have one layer. Duplicate that layer.

9) On the new duplicated layer, select Filter > Noise > Median. You can choose a value like 5. This would create a basis to the "old" feel of the photo.

10) When that is done, change the layer option to this edited layer. Choose Linear burn.

11) After that, please go to Layer > Merge Down to make the separated layers one. Then go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance. Again, make it look like an old photograph. You can refer to the values shown in the following picture.

12) Then, you have to copy the image and open it in a new window. This means creating two windows with the same picture.

13) As you've already done before, choose one of the two photos to edit first. On your selected photo, go to Images > Mode > Grayscale, and then click Merge if it prompts you. Your photo would then become black and white.

14) Now, select the gray image (Ctrl + A) and then copy it onto the colorful one (Ctrl + V) so that it is on top of the colorful layer. Then change the layer options to Multiply.

15) Then merge both layers together. You can do that by going to Layer > Merge Down. Now select a brush (with a white color) and brush randomly onto the photo. You can brush it anywhere and where you like, on the face, everywhere. Be random. It creates a rough or folded effect for the photo. You can go to brushes section to get a set of brushes to this if you wish. I personally think that the default Photoshop brushes are sufficient to perform this effect.

16) Then change the layer option to Overlay. You might want to change the opacity to a lower value. 

17) After that, go to Layer > Merge Down to merge all the layers into one. You can now go to color balance to change the color balance for the last time. 

18) Then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. This should be fairly straight forward. It is your last chance to make any color changes to the overall tone of the photo.

19) You are almost there...! The last step here guides you in making a nice border to fit with the theme of being an "old photo". Create a new layer on top of the finished photo.

20) Select a brush: the example here uses a Photoshop default brush. 

21) Play around and make a nice border and you're done! Have fun!