Trouble Finding Right Photoshop-Fu

March 25, 2010 8:17 AM

Hi, all, I'm fairly adept at Photoshop, but have been having trouble finding what i need: Need to create an image -- symbols (which I have) that appear to have come from pages of old, soiled journal. Need to be scratchy, roughed up. Output in gray scale, 300 dpi. I'm open to tutorials, ideas, brushes, custom shapes, etc. Thanks in advance.
posted by gb77 to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

My first take on this is to use textures. Create new layers with grayscale textures (you can google free textures, or photograph your own). Find a rough paper one, a scratched metal one, maybe a stained paper one, and whatever else seems to fit. Play with the transparencies to taste. This should provide a good start.

I would also think Sepia might be a better output choice than straight grayscale, but not knowing the nature of your project or these symbols, it's hard to get more specific than that.
posted by hamandcheese at 8:26 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

This has been asked here a couple times before. Search for the words vintage and grunge and Photoshop.

How do I beat up an image in Photoshop

Tattered
posted by cda at 8:32 AM on March 25, 2010

It's kind of a quick cheat, but I really like The Pioneer Woman's Photoshop Actions for this. There are a few that might give a desired output, particularly the Vintage one.
posted by booknerd at 8:55 AM on March 25, 2010

This is how I usually end up doing it:

Find a texture pic you like (Flickr groups has a bunch of groups devoted to texture) and then put the texture layer on top of the symbol.

Select the symbol, then invert the selection. Switch to the texture layer, and delete the selection. You should now have the texture over only the symbol.

While still in the texture layer, go to your layers menu, and in the Blend Mode dropdown box, select Multiply.

You can then adjust the opacity of the layer to get the effect you want.

Hope this helps!
posted by MexicanYenta at 9:07 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

This was pretty trendy in web design for a bit:

Wicked Worn Look was one of the most popular series' on it. Just googling "wicked worn look" might reveal some others.
posted by backwards guitar at 9:08 AM on March 25, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, everybody. Some great stuff here.
posted by gb77 at 8:58 PM on March 25, 2010