Photoshop Effects: Old-Fashioned, Hand-Tinted Effect

Step 7: Apply The Gaussian Blur Filter

Still with "Layer 1" selected, go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Blur, and then choose Gaussian Blur. We're going to apply some blurring to the tinting so it looks more like it was done by hand and not by a computer. When the Gaussian Blur dialog box appears, enter in a Radius value of about 10 pixels:

Here's the image after applying the Gaussian Blur filter:

Step 8: Bring Back Some Of The Shadow Detail With The "Blend If" Sliders

Things are looking good, except that I've lost some of the detail in the shadow areas of the image. I need to bring it back, and I'm going to do that by hiding the darkest parts of the image on "Layer 1" and letting the black and white version show through. How am I going to do that? By using Photoshop's Blend If sliders.

Click on the Add Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Choose Blending Options... from the top of the list that appears:

This will bring up the Layer Style dialog box. The "Blend If" sliders are at the very bottom: