[Nephric]

Hello. This is my first Tut. The first time that I tried the GIMP I could not figure out how to use so many of the features. It was b/c I was working in Grayscale!
*Sigh* I'll never get those 3 hours of my life back.....Now, I want to give back to the GIMPTalk community that has taught me so much about the GIMP.
This Tut will show you how to make a photo look old, cracked, and weathered. I did a search and could find no such technique. So, I played around with some settings and then made this Tut with GIMP v.2.2.11.

First, open your photo with GIMP. Umm, make sure that you are working in RGB. Here is a picture of my daughter. I put a digital watch into the frame for some anachronistic irony.


In the photo's window open Script-Fu-->Decor-->Old Photo. I used the default settings except for the Border, which I lowered to 10. You should have a new copy of your picture, like this:


Looks nice and old, yes? Well, we're going to age it some more now. In the Layer window (CTRL+L) create a new layer. Name it 'Cracked Up.' Set the Layer Fill Type as Transparency.

Toggle your FG/BG colors so that FG=White and BG=Black.

The rest of the work will be done on the Cracked Up Layer. In the old photo's window open Filters-->Distorts-->Mosaic. Set the settings as shown below.


In the Layers window set the Cracked Up Layer Mode to Overlay. Move the Opacity Slider to 80. Lastly, open the Filters-->Enhance-->Unsharp Mask and use these settings:


Now, your photo should look like this:


It's a previously undiscovered photo of my daughter's great-great grandmother from the Old Country! The resemblence is striking.

I look forward to seeing your old photos. I also welcome any constructive criticism.

[Nevon]

That mosaic-thingy looks a bit too unnatural. I would suggest using some grunge-brushes on a separate layer, lower the opacity (or you could try setting it to value) and playing around with the colour levels until it looks natural.
I don't know if that would look any better at all, I'm just brainstorming here. Maybe I'll try it tonight when I'm bored... :P

[JapJap]

Old photos don't look like that... :c:

But babys are always cute. Buut if you don't mind I say you that this tutorial doesn't help anyone and babys are always cute.

[Nephric]

Oh well. I tried to replicate the look of some pictures on the wall at my office that show the building from 1901 to 1906. The photos are really old and really cracked.

Yeah, the Mosaic Filter is a bit too regularly irregular. Looks unnatural. Nevon, do you have a brush that would do the trick?

Anyway, thanks for reading.

[XyllyX]

You could maybe try making a selection out of the mosaic and then using the "distress selection" plugin in script-fu.

[masterdash]

try a lightning brush, and overlay it, it should make the cracks appear better

[Nephric]

Better Outcome. Thanks for the tips. I looked at lightning brushes but they just didn't seem right either. Also, the Mosaic lines are only one pixel in width, so the GIMP would not let me Distress the selection.
I decided that the look that I wanted was like dried mud. So I found a good picture of an old ship and a good picture of dried mud and merged them like so:

I ran the Old Photo Script on the picture of the old ship.
I then added a new layer and pasted in the picture of the dried mud. Then I set the dried mud layer to Overlay. A lot simpler than using the Mosaic, for sure.

I think it looks better, do you?

Okay, this technique is not going to Pimp your siggy or make it more 1337, but it may be of some interest to those of you that use the GIMP for photomanipulation.
Happy GIMPing.

[FallingDreamer]

Nephic, LoL, it may appear more 'old' if there wasn't a 2005 Time Ex. Yes the final result with the boat turned out quite nice, although it should be faded in other parts of the picture. Light effects in the beginning, then run all of the other steps could probley add a little more realism. Overall, nice job. Thanks for the tut!

[XyllyX]

There is a box in the Mosaic filter that allows you to make the width of the lines between the mosaic part thicker or thinner.

[XyllyX]

You might also try, instead of putting the mud texture over the picture, using it as a very "gentle" bump map instead, then it might look more like part of the picture. It kinda looks "overlaid". You could possibly even combine the bump map and the overlay together.

[Nephric]

Bumped up the picture and bumped up the thread. w00t!

[Blazeboy]

This seems a bit more realistic to me.... Not counting the text lol.





I play too many video games....

EDIT: Picture doesn't count either. I was too lazy to look for a stock image so I just pulled up a render and made some fake realistic fake water

[flyingcheetah]

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