Fireworks CS5 tutorial to create retro/vintage effect to a photograph

In this tutorial we will learn to give cool retro / vintage effect to pictures in Adobe fireworks CS5.

1. Lets start with background canvas color. Choose any retro color that you like. For this tutorial I choose retro orange (#AB4E22).
2. To provide old paper effect, download any handmade paper (something similar to what I have used). Scale it to fit the canvas with Free Transform (Cmd/Ctrl + T).
   
3. Now we need to work on the paper a little so that it merges well with the canvas color. For this, first select the paper and then go to Filters > Adjust Color > Curves and here change the RGB value to darken the paper a bit.
4. Then change the Blend mode of the fireworks layer from 'Normal' to 'Screen'. We also need to change the opacity from 100 to 49 or any value you desire, so that the output which we get looks like this on our canvas.
   
5. As we are done with the background, lets start working on the foreground. Create a new layer wherein we can put the main picture. I picked a vintage car from flickr.com, removed all the unwanted elements in the picture and just retained the car as shown below.
6. Add some Noise: create a new layer and place a black rectangle. Name this layer as "REC" and place this layer above the vintage car layer. Now select the REC layer, go to Filters > Noise > Add noise and set the amount to 20. This will give a light granular texture to our picture. Also set the Blend mode to Screen. Now decrease the opacity to 15 or 20. You can also set the Blend mode to Soft light, to give a darker color and effect.
   
7. Add sky: For this take any scenery and cut the sky part from the scenery, so that we can use the same for our picture. If you wish to play around with your sky, try different hues ( Filters > Adjust color > Hue/saturation ). As my sky looked perfect, I didn't play around with hue.
   
8. Now again make a new layer and place a rectangle inside it. Select the gradient tool and set up a purple to yellow linear gradient to it. The result should be a retro looking mix of purple and yellow, as shown below.
   
9. Now select this rectangle and decrease its opacity to 40. Place this layer above the layer containing the vintage car. REC layer should be right on top of all the layers. The output looks like this.
   
10. Apply a large spot of white in the front of the car. Change the Blend mode of this spot to Soft Light and decrease its opacity from 100 to 72.
11. After doing this, we get our final Wallpaper which looks like this.
    

Tags: Adobe fireworks to create retro effect to photographs, tutorila to create retro photo