Tutorial: antique photo finish
I've been working on a themed set of icons in an "antique photo" style, and I'm pretty pleased with the results, so I thought I'd share my technique for making them. The first few steps before applying the border brush are also a good general technique for making b&w images look nice. I use PSP 7, but it should translate easily to other versions and programs.
We're going to from this:
to this: 
So we start off with the above base, of the lovely Salma Hayek. First, go to Layers->New Adjustment Layer->Hue/Saturation/Lightness and bring the saturation all the way down to -100.
Now do New Adjustment Layer->Brightness/Contrast. I set the contrast to 41 and brightness to -6, but you should fiddle with it to get your image just how you like it.
Go to the Retouch tool. Using a small Soften brush at 57% opacity, smudge any background details behind your central figure. In this case, I smudged the area between Ms Hayek's arm and torso, and under her hand in the lower left corner.
Make a new layer. Fill it with this gradient by
crumblingwalls: 
, and set to Burn.
Another new layer. Apply this brush:
by, uhm, 
meleade, I think, in white and set to Lighten.
One last layer. Fill with this gradient bycrumblingwalls 
and set to Multiply. Fiddle with the opacity until you like the coloring. I used 90 here, but it varied from icon to icon.
Ta-da! We're done!
Another couple of icons made the same way:
We're going to from this:
to this: So we start off with the above base, of the lovely Salma Hayek. First, go to Layers->New Adjustment Layer->Hue/Saturation/Lightness and bring the saturation all the way down to -100.
Now do New Adjustment Layer->Brightness/Contrast. I set the contrast to 41 and brightness to -6, but you should fiddle with it to get your image just how you like it.
Go to the Retouch tool. Using a small Soften brush at 57% opacity, smudge any background details behind your central figure. In this case, I smudged the area between Ms Hayek's arm and torso, and under her hand in the lower left corner.
Make a new layer. Fill it with this gradient by
crumblingwalls: , and set to Burn.Another new layer. Apply this brush:
by, uhm, meleade, I think, in white and set to Lighten.One last layer. Fill with this gradient by
crumblingwalls and set to Multiply. Fiddle with the opacity until you like the coloring. I used 90 here, but it varied from icon to icon.Ta-da! We're done!
Another couple of icons made the same way: