Below you’ll find 6 really cool vintage effect Photoshop actions to help you achieve some great color effects in your photos. These Photoshop actions are fully reversible and better yet, they are adjustable.

How to use these actions:

  1. To load the actions, go to your Actions panel in Photoshop and click on the “flyout menu” on the top right corner of the panel. Select “Load Actions…” and then navigate to where you downloaded the action on your hard drive. Select the actions you want to load into your Actions Panel.
  2. Open the image onto which you would like to apply an action.
  3. Create a duplicate layer of your background layer.
  4. Go to your actions panel and press the Play button with your selected action highlighted.
  5. To adjust the effects, click on the corresponding Adjustment Layer in your Layers Panel. Enjoy!
  6. To reverse all the effects, delete all the layers except the background layer.

All the actions we’ve included work well on most types of photographs. However, for best results, we suggest that you make sure that your photos are well-exposed and the tone and white balance are to your liking before you apply these Photoshop Actions.

This is the “before” image that we’ll be using to show off the effects of these freebie Photoshop actions. It is a photo of my lovely friend who was kind enough to let us use her image.

1) Vintage Polaroid

This Photoshop action gives your photos a somewhat desaturated look and gives the shadows a blueish tint. It mimics the look of those lovely instant Polaroids.

2) High Contrast Black & White

This Photoshop action gives your photos a very high contrast black and white look. It mimics the look of classic black and white photographers in the first half of the 20th century.

3) Vintage Red Push

This action gives your photos a red tint and desaturates the colors of your photos a little bit. It gives your photos that classic poster look.

4) Rock and Rolla

This action gives your photos a “on-the-road” feel. Much like the feeling you would get following a rock band on tour.

5) Blue Dream

This action does not require you to create a duplicate layer of your background layer. Just press play in the actions panel and you’ll get a dreamy, surreal, photo. This works especially well with landscapes and still life photos.

6) Expiration

This action mimics the look of shooting with expired rolls of film. The colors are desaturated and the contrast is lowered to give your photos that classic look.

All of these actions are fun to use. However, always remember that these actions won’t work perfectly with every single photo. Always make sure that the photo you want to use is well-exposed before you apply these actions.

These actions are provided for you to use in your personal and commercial projects. However, please do not redistribute the files without expressed consent from Design Instruct staff.

Download Source Files

  • File type: .zip
  • Number of files: 6

vintage_photo_effects_DI.zip

Author:

Isaac is the Co-Founder and Chief Editor of Design Instruct. He has experience in various design and art related fields including design, illustration, and photography. He's in charge of making sure that Design Instruct publishes high quality content that professional designers and digital artists demand and expect. Get in touch via email and on Twitter as @designinstruct or @IAMTHEGUBE.