Retro Polaroid Coloring on your Photo

This is a simple tutorial on how to get the retro polaroid coloring on your digital photo. This coloring effect will definitely goes well with these polaroid brushes. I can't guarantee that this is the polaroid effect you're looking for, but if you have Photoshop, it's worth a try. Of course another option will be, to buy a real polaroid camera. That will cost you some money. I included a PSD file for this tutorial just because I feel like doing something nice today. The weather is bright and sunny outside..it tends to make me feel good inside.

Download: Polaroid Coloring PSD File




Polaroid Coloring in Photoshop


1. Open your image in Photoshop. Duplicate it once. Select the duplicate image on your layer palette and set the blending mode to Soft Light.



3. Now, go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Choose a really dark blue. I use #070142. Set this Fill Layer to Exclusion.





4. Then, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. Slide the black slider to the right a little bit to increase the intensity of the coloring.



You can stop here if you already got the result you want. Or continue with the rest of the tutorial to see if you can get something a little bit more awesome.

5. Add another Color Fill layer. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Choose a light orange. I use #de9b82. Set this Color Fill Layer to Soft Light with opacity of 75%.





Again, you can choose to stop here.

6. But if you decide to continue, go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Choose a light pink. The color code I use is fed1eb. Then, set this Fill Layer to Soft Light with 50% opacity.



You've got a nice polaroid effect already? If your answer is yes, then you can stop here. Otherwise, let's continue to see if you can get a much better polaroid effect.

7. Add another Color Fill Layer. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. Select a dark blue. I use #070044. Set this Color Fill Layer to Exclusion, opacity 100%.

8. Duplicate your original image. And bring this duplicate layer on top of all the layers. Set it to Soft Light.



RELATED POSTS:
Retro Gradient Coloring Effect - PSDs Download
Cross-Processing Retro Photo - Action Download

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

these colors look nothing like real polaroids.

Anonymous said...

Great tutorial! Exactly what I was looking for. I disagree with “Anonymous” - the colours do a very good job of imitating the Polaroid effect.

Unknown said...

Real good work thanks alot!

Anonymous said...

your tut was awesome and as michael said Exactly what I was looking for.Finally biggggggg thanks for ur tut.......linus

Jan Willem said...

Very useful tutorial, thanks!

Yazmin Aladynna said...

Thank you for this invaluable tutorial.

You rock!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this tutorial! Helpful!

Anonymous said...

Great tutorial. I think it's a great effect and was exactly what I was looking for.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Great tutorial. A diamond in the rough compared to some of the other poor excuses for Polaroid tutorials I've come across. Thanks heaps!

Only problem is, there's quite alot of steps involved in this. Do you think there would be a way of doing it with a few less? Reason being, is that I've found it takes alot of time and alot of Ram to batch edit a series of photos with this number of actions. Other than that though, I was really happy with the results! Thanks again :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dallascasey/sets

*aCe* said...

Hi Dallas,

Glad that this tutorial helped u somehow. As for your question..I haven't figure out a shorter way yet, but maybe you can try step 1-4 only and skip the rest. You'll still get the first polaroid effect =)

Andrew said...

Nice, quick tutorial. Thanks for posting

Evan Saap said...

Thanks a lot. I'll have a try!

LJ said...

Thanks for the tutorial... As far as editing a large amount of photos, couldn't you just drag and drop the fill and adjustment layers onto a new photo? Still leaves a few steps but might save you some time. Thanks again!

Encover said...

Wow! I love these colors! thank u so much :)

Anonymous said...

Very cool results! Thanks for the tutorial!

Anonymous said...

Thank you SO much! Exactly what I was looking for! :-)

*aCe* said...

You're very much welcome =)

Gostar said...

Great tutorial! used it on my China Lost Polaroids serie.

http://www.skylark-creative.com/blog/post/2010/08/09/China-The-Lost-Polaroids.aspx

Anne W said...

Can you give me links to your other tutorials? I'd love to see how you created the Vintage Color Effect.

Abi V said...

Wow Thanks for this! I'll post some of my work on my site. :D

*aCe* said...

Hi there, Abigail..

I would love to check out your site and see how it turns out for you =)

Abi said...

Finally a well written tutorial which does what it says! .. any other tutorials you offer? could you post me a link, i'd love to check them out

*aCe* said...

Hi Abi,

Click on the 'Photo Effect' menu (top right), you'll find plenty of tutorials listed under there.

Dreamy Damsel said...

i have been looking for this. thanks a lot!!

Sujata setia said...

so u know ur a rock star... like everyone's already told you!!

Nik Deluxe said...

I have just used your tutorial, and it's great. The only thing I have added is a "feathered" kind of frame effect, using the rectangular marquee tool set to feather of 20, then invert and feather to 20-30 then fill with a dark blue colour and set to soft light to get the really polaroid edge to the photo.

Mildenmorff said...

Great Tutorial! Fantastic! Bravo! This was really easy to do and understand, I recommend this to my fellow photoshop user friends.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant. Just what I was looking for (and it wasn't easy to find). Thanks!

Julie van der Wekken said...

Thanks so much! Loved this tutorial. This was about the 10th one I came across that actually worked how I wanted it to:)

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for this...it was exactly what I was looking for and my image came out looking AWESOME.

Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

THANKSSS

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot! it works!! :)

Anonymous said...

Nice !

Anonymous said...

great idea, great tut!

Happy said...

Great Tutorial :D

Source Code Visual Basic 6 said...

Good jobs, thanks brother

Anonymous said...

Really useful!! Never used photoshop before and this really helped me to get used to a few things thanks!

Husna Syahrahim said...

:-bd

Anonymous said...

This is a great tutorial, thanks!

...also, I want to give you a cookie for the OneRepublic lyrics. I recognized them instantly and it gave me fuzziness all over. ♥

Abbra said...

Great tutorial. I changed the last duplicate layer to a hard light setting to get the exact look that I wanted. This just opened up a ton of stuff for me. Thanks so much!

Kurt Klimisch said...

GREAT! I have been looking for something like this. One suggestion. I copied the background to the top and pulled the opacity down to 40% - worked really well for me. THANKS!

yumant said...

thanks for information

Badthor said...

It did work! awesome!

Mario said...

thanks so much :))

Anonymous said...

cheers really smart

Anonymous said...

Incredible tutorial. thank you

Anonymous said...

real handy and quick, Im doing a CD cover for a mates 40th, perfect.

Madeleine said...

THANK YOU! U R A LIFE SAVIOR!!! :D
do u happen to have a similar tutorial for night light pictures??

author said...

nice tutorial, thanks.. :)

Anonymous said...

just what the dr ordered! thanks for the easy process.

jose said...

dude, simple and effective tut. Really good effect in quick n easy steps.

thanks!

insonnia said...

Man! let me tell you. u r genious! This is what i was looking for! thanks

Anonymous said...

man! awesome! this is what I was looking 4. thanks!