PS: Sharpened Antique Effect
I used a technique similar to this to create my current header.
Go from
to 
Picture is a scan from starway.
Find and crop your base. Black and white pictures work best for this, so if your picture isn't already black and white, desaturate it (Shift + Ctrl + U).
Sharpen twice (Filters --> Sharpen --> Sharpen).
Duplicate your base twice. Set the first duplicate to Screen 70%, and the second to Soft Light 100%. Flatten the image.
Adjust the Brightness/Contrast levels (Image --> Adjustments ---> Brightness/Contrast) so that the subject is very defined. I adjusted mine to +17 Brightness and +12 contrast.
If you're familiar with "styles" in Photoshop, duplicate your base and add the style "sun faded photo" and fade to about 18%. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, do this: create a new layer and fill with a light orange, about #e49b61, and set to Color Burn 18%. Create another new layer and fill with a black/white gradient (as shown below) and set that to Overlay 16-18%. It's pretty close to the same effect.
Make a trusty blue exclusion layer... new layer filled with #040c23 and set to Exclusion 70%. Select a light grungey texture like the one below (made by me) and set to Multiply 100%. Duplicate the texture so that you have two layers of Multiplyed texture. It might look too dark, but don't worry. Create another new layer and fill with the gradient below (found somewhere in the premade Photoshop gradients) and set to Lighten 78%. Now it'll look too light/washed out. Duplicate your base layer, drag to top, and set to Soft Light 100%.
Flatten your image, and Sharpen it one more time. It might look a little grainy, but that works for this effect.
Add a border brush (the one used here made by me) in an light orangey-brown color, like #b79e93, and set to Color Burn 100%. Add any other brushes/text of your choice, and you're done :)
Go from
to Picture is a scan from starway.
Find and crop your base. Black and white pictures work best for this, so if your picture isn't already black and white, desaturate it (Shift + Ctrl + U).
Sharpen twice (Filters --> Sharpen --> Sharpen).
Duplicate your base twice. Set the first duplicate to Screen 70%, and the second to Soft Light 100%. Flatten the image.
Adjust the Brightness/Contrast levels (Image --> Adjustments ---> Brightness/Contrast) so that the subject is very defined. I adjusted mine to +17 Brightness and +12 contrast.
If you're familiar with "styles" in Photoshop, duplicate your base and add the style "sun faded photo" and fade to about 18%. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, do this: create a new layer and fill with a light orange, about #e49b61, and set to Color Burn 18%. Create another new layer and fill with a black/white gradient (as shown below) and set that to Overlay 16-18%. It's pretty close to the same effect.
Make a trusty blue exclusion layer... new layer filled with #040c23 and set to Exclusion 70%. Select a light grungey texture like the one below (made by me) and set to Multiply 100%. Duplicate the texture so that you have two layers of Multiplyed texture. It might look too dark, but don't worry. Create another new layer and fill with the gradient below (found somewhere in the premade Photoshop gradients) and set to Lighten 78%. Now it'll look too light/washed out. Duplicate your base layer, drag to top, and set to Soft Light 100%.
Flatten your image, and Sharpen it one more time. It might look a little grainy, but that works for this effect.
Add a border brush (the one used here made by me) in an light orangey-brown color, like #b79e93, and set to Color Burn 100%. Add any other brushes/text of your choice, and you're done :)