Level: Beginner’s
Program: Photoshop CS5
Patience: pretty moderate-high for beginners (you have to build an eye for coloring/filtering)

Get original picture here.

Do you notice how the picture on the right seems to have a white-ish sort of filter?

I’m not a photographer but I do believe that it’s an effect that you can create with your camera. Now, it’s all nice and dandy when you’re an awesome photographer, but what about regular people like us? (I’m assuming that if you already skimmed past the picture you can’t already do this with your camera.) Well, I have a solution for you guys!

I’m going to show you guys how to do this in Photoshop CS5 through coloring (some call it filtering—whatever floats your boat).

We’re going to be doing this in 4 layers. I’m going to try to not mess with any specific color (like blue, cyan, etc.) in this tutorial at all. I just want you to get the basic gist off this “washed out” look.

Let’s get into it!

1) Pull up your picture. Create a new layer. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast.
*Layer is at the top next to “File,” “Edit,” and “Image.” A window titled “New Layer” should pop up. Just click OK. If you have CS5, the part I want you to look at should pop up on the right side under an “Adjustment” tab. If not, it might pop up in a different window.

Either drag the bar or change the numbers and adjust the settings like so:

Brightness: 42
Contrast: -50

I do this just to set up the ground works of that “washed out” look. I find that it makes up most of the white filter over the image.

2) Create another layer. Layer> New Adjustment Layer > Curves
Click anywhere in the middle on that diagonal gray line (you don’t have to be too perfect).  A tiny black box should appear. Now adjust it to:
Output: 143
Input: 128

Now, create another black box towards the bottom of that diagonal gray line. Adjust the settings to:
Output: 59
Input: 67

Same steps. This time create the box towards the top. Change settings like so:
Output: 202
Input: 207

Your curves layers should look something like this:


I do this because I feel like the layer just gives the colors more life. We are already going to be dulling down the colors so I felt like we needed this layer to give it some backbone. Usually, I would create my points and mess around to see which position I liked best but for the sake of this tutorial, I just went ahead and gave you guys the numbers.


3) Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Exposure. Adjust settings like so:

Exposure: +0.02
Offset: 0.0706
Gamma Correction: 1.00

Don’t freak out. I know. The colors are all super dark now. We need them to be like that. We’re preparing them for the next layer. You will see how much the next layer will dull out these colors. We just need some of them to stand out.

4) Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Exposure. Adjust settings like so:

Exposure: 0.00
Offset: 0.0549 

Gamma Correction: 1.00

And tada! See how dramatic that was? Now we have our end result. You can go back over and adjust any settings if you’d like. It all depends on personal taste. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!