Photo Deconstruction

The capability of renewing the old using Photoshop is wonderful thing, but so is being able to age the new! Inspired by the romance of old family photos, I decided to age a photo I took of my wife at a friend's wedding and place it in an old green photo mat I scanned in. When I scanned the mat, I turned the photo it contained over to reveal the white, aged back side for use as a digital canvas. I won't explain the whole process, but it is enough to say that pulling off the look of an old photo lies in the ability to pick apart what makes a photo look old, besides being black and white. It must be contrasty, have a slight off focus veniette, contain the look of years of wear and tear, and so on. The end result was quite fun!

Here is the original photo of my wife.

Here is a detailed view of the finished deconstruction.

This is the final image placed in the old mat frame.