When it comes to designing a vintage postcard, the Creative Cloud has everything you need to get started. With a wide variety of tools and features, you can easily create a stunning design that will stand out from the rest.
1. Prepare the Document
Step 1
Press (Ctrl+N) to create a new document, set the following values: 3000 x 2000 px; 300 dpi.
Step 2
Go to File > Place to place your original image on your working document.
Step 3
Scale your source image to the size of your canvas and then press (Enter).
Step 4
Press (M) to activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool, select the entire canvas.
Step 5
Go to Image > Crop to remove the areas of the image that are outside the outline of the canvas.
Step 6
After that, right-click on this layer and in the window that appears, select Convert to Smart Object.
2. Create a Vintage Photo Effect
Step 1
Being on the layer with the smart object, go Filter > Noise > Median and set the following settings: Radius: 2 px.
Step 2
Go to Filter > Noise (Filter > Noise > Add Noise) set the following settings: Amount: 7%; Distribution: Uniform; check the box Monochromatic.
Step 3
Double-click the smart object thumbnail icon to open the smart object in the new document.
Step 4
Create three duplicates of the smart object by right-clicking on the smart object layer and in the window that appears, select the option Create duplicate layer (Duplicate).
Step 5
Double-click on the first duplicate layer and in the layer style window that appears, uncheck the Green and Blue boxes.
Step 6
After that, double-click on the second duplicate layer to uncheck the Red and Blue boxes.
Step 7
Finally, uncheck the Red and Green boxes for the last duplicate layer.
Step 8
Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N), placing it on top of the first duplicate layer.
Step 9
Create two more new layers, positioning them as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 10
Hold down (Shift) and select the first duplicate of the main image layer and layer 1, then right-click on the selected layers and in the window that appears, choose Merge Layers.
Step 11
Repeat the same process to merge the remaining duplicate layers with the main image with blank new layers.
Step 12
Move to the layer with the main image and then press (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+B) to convert the image to black and white.
Step 13
Move to layer 1 (Layer 1), then press (M). Next, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the completely red image and then press (Ctrl+C) to copy the selection.
Step 14
Go to the layer with the main image, and then go to the Channels panel, then, select the Red channel.
Step 15
Press (Ctrl+V) to paste the selection of layer 1 (Layer 1) onto the red channel of the main image.
Step 16
Now we need to paste layer 2 (Layer 2) to the Green channel and layer 3 (Layer 3) to the Blue channel of the main image as we did before.
The result should be as on the screenshot below after all manipulations:
Step 17
Hold down the (Shift) key and select the duplicate layer with the main image and then click on the Delete layer icon.
Step 18
Now let’s do some color correction to improve the colors of the image. While on the master image layer, go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and set the following settings: Brightness: 125; Contrast: -50.
Step 19.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, set the following settings: Hue: -25.
Step 20
After that, go to Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer and set the following settings: Output Channel: Green; Green: +75%; Blues: -25%.
Step 21
Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and adjust the following settings: Brightness: 35; Contrast: -15
Step 22
To create a more realistic vintage look, we could shift the color channels slightly. Go to the Channels panel, then select the Red channel.
Step 23
Press the (M) key and then select the whole image.
Step 24
Now press the (V) key and then move the channel 1 px to the left.
Step 25
After that, select Green, and then move it 1 px to the right as we did before.
3. Creating the Postcard Effect
Step 1
Close and save the smart object document.
Step 2
Press (Alt+Ctrl+C), set the following settings as shown in the screenshot below:
Step 3
Resize the smart object (Ctrl+T) by setting Width to 90% and Height to 90%.
Step 4
Hold down (Shift) and move the smart object 175 px to the left.
Step 5
Press the (T) key, and then create two text layers with whatever text you want.
Step 6
Press (Ctrl+T), then hold down (Shift) and rotate each text layer by -90°.
Step 7
Slide the text layers to the right side of the canvas.
Step 8
Hold down the (Shift) key and select the text layers, then right-click on the selected layers and in the window that appears, select Convert to Smart Object.
Step 9
To create a more realistic vintage text effect, we need to blur the text layers. While on the text layer smart object, go Filter > Noise > Median and set the following settings: Radius: 2 px.
Step 10
Now we can add textures to our document. Go to File > Place to place the vintage textures on top of all the other layers.
Step 11
Change the blending mode for the first vintage texture layer to Multiply.
Step 12
Next, change the blending mode for the second scratch texture layer to Lighten (Screen).
Good job, we’re done with the Lesson!
This way, we can use Adobe Creative Cloud to create a vintage postcard using smart objects, color correction and vintage textures.