How to add scratches to get old film look?

I have been trying to figure out how to get that scratched old film/photo look in CS5. I have downloaded a few scratch and grunge brushes but I am not really feeling the brushed scratch look. I know I can add my own textures and do it that way but I cant seem to find any textures that grab my attention. Please help me out. I would love to see some examples if that's at all possible.


Any advice is much appreciated!

The Alien Skin 'Exposure 3' plugin has a great scratch tool and it's completely configurable and has a random generator to ensure they don't all look the same.
It also does grain, dust and about five hundred other film type effects*

http://www.alienskin.c​om/exposure/index.aspx

It's not cheap ($249 / £155) but about the best tool I've come a cross for this sort of thing. Get the trial

* according to the web site

This may not be the kind of look you're after but if you find wrinkled or cracked paper texture, you could use that as an overlay to get a result like this:

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NinetyEight wrote in post #11928381
The Alien Skin 'Exposure 3' plugin has a great scratch tool and it's completely configurable and has a random generator to ensure they don't all look the same.
It also does grain, dust and about five hundred other film type effects*

http://www.alienskin.c​om/exposure/index.aspx

It's not cheap ($249 / £155) but about the best tool I've come a cross for this sort of thing. Get the trial

* according to the web site

Thank you I am gonna check it out looks like it may be worth the money. Do you have any examples that you have done and would like to share?

navydoc wrote in post #11928413
This may not be the kind of look you're after but if you find wrinkled or cracked paper texture, you could use that as an overlay to get a result like this:

I do like that. I just dont want the scratched look. I would like to have all different textures such as rust, cracked concentrate, cracked brick walls etc. Weathered textures I would call them.

I like that texture that you used very much. Can you share your pp?

You can find free textures by doing a search online. Attached are the two textures I used for the image above. I can't seem to find the original, larger versions. You could change the size of these textures by using the free transform tool (ctl+t)

Using photoshop, I desaturated the textures and placed them above the image. I increased the contrast to bring out the textures more and then I changed the blending mode to either overlay or multiply. If you want a stronger effect, duplicate the texture layer (ctl+j). You can also adjust the opacity of the layers to suit as well. If you don't desaturate the textures, they will give your image more of a sepia look.

Hope that makes sense.

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navydoc wrote in post #11929942
You can find free textures by doing a search online. Attached are the two textures I used for the image above. I can't seem to find the original, larger versions.

Using photoshop, I desaturated the textures and place them above the image. I increased the contrast to bring out the textures more and then I changed the blending mode to either overlay or multiply. If you want a stronger effect, duplicate the texture layer. You can also adjust the opacity of the layers to suit as well. If you don't desaturate the textures, they will give your image more of a sepia look.

Hope that makes sense.

I gotcha. Thank you so much unfortunately I have to go to work now I so I will try it out tonight when I get out. Once again thank you!

Also - consider browsing the Library of Congress digital photo collection to view historical photos for reference of "real" scratches, damage, etc. that occur.

Kirk

that 2nd textured paper > http://www.google.co.u​k …Disch:1,isz:l&u​m=1&itbs=1

Thank you guys very much.

Does anyone else have any input? Or is this a golden secret????????

I swear I see the some of the stupidest/obvious questions posted here and those threads go into 2-3 pages and I can't even get 1 page??? Lol

not to sound stupid but here goes....print the picture , put in the sun for a while , then put it on a sandy table top ,and slide it around , fold it a few times , wear it in your pocket for a while and then scan it. orrr you can get an old free copy of Nero StartSmart

mosteller wrote in post #11945379
not to sound stupid but here goes....print the picture , put in the sun for a while , then put it on a sandy table top ,and slide it around , fold it a few times , wear it in your pocket for a while and then scan it. orrr you can get an old free copy of Nero StartSmart

That's a very interesting way to never duplicate the scratch patterns I will take a look at nero startsmart.

Thank you.

Can you link to an image as an example of the kind of look you're after? My image above is more an aged beaten photo rather than scratched film. When I think of scratched film, I think of movie film or an old negative that has gotten scratched.

Here is another example using textures, vignette and contrast adjustment to try and replicate an old tintype photo. Is this more what you had in mind?

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navydoc wrote in post #11945506
Can you link to an image as an example of the kind of look you're after? My image above is more an aged beaten photo rather than scratched film. When I think of scratched film, I think of movie film or an old negative that has gotten scratched.

Here is another example using textures, vignette and contrast adjustment to try and replicate an old tintype photo. Is this more what you had in mind?

Both of your examples are exactly what I am looking for and the other look I want is the scratched movie film look. Thank you for being very helpful.

I am work now on my Blackberry so I can't link you to an example.

Did you look at the library of congress collection of images? THere are literally thousands of images like the one posted by navydoc, only they are real period negatives and prints with real aging and artifacting. You can sample portions of these defects and use them as overlaid layers to transfer the defects to your image. The civil war collection alone will give you everything you need. Best of all, it's free and they typically have hi-resolution TIFFs for download. There's no need for three pages of a thread on this one and there is no golden secret. If you are trying to replicate a specific look, find reference examples and use them.

Kirk

If you do an internet search for adding scratches to a photo in photoshop you will find lots of tutorials that will achieve your desired end result. Here is one such result. As noted by others here using textures is a great way of doing this. It is fast and simple to do. I keep a library of several hundred textures that I use which I suggest anyone to do if they plan on doing any amount of this.