Summary: Learn how to give any photo an old-fashioned, hand-tinted look in just a few simple steps.

Written by Steve Patterson
Exclusively for Photoshop Essentials.com.

Part of our complete collection of Photo Effects tutorials.

In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to easily create an old-fashioned, hand-tinted photo effect.

All it takes is an adjustment layer, a layer blend mode, some blurring, a slider bar, and a couple of minutes of your time.

Here's the photo I'll be using:

And here's the "hand-tinted" effect we're after:

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Let's get started!

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

With my image open in Photoshop, I can see in my Layers palette that I currently have just one layer, the Background layer, which contains my original image:

I need to make a duplicate of my Background layer, so I'll use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). I now have two layers in the Layers palette, the original Background layer and the copy above it, which Photoshop names "Layer 1":

Step 2: Hide The Background Copy Layer For Now

We don't need to actually see our Background copy layer just yet, so click on the Layer Visibility icon (the eyeball) on the left of "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to temporarily hide it in the Document Window: