Step 21: Change The Blend Mode Of The "Grain" Layer To "Screen"

To turn those white dots and lines into something that looks more like dust and scratches, simply go up to the Blend Mode option at the top of the Layers palette and change the "Grain" layer's blend mode from "Normal" to Screen:

The "Screen" blend mode will instantly hide all the black areas on the layer, leaving only the white dots and lines visible, creating our subtle dust and scratches effect:

You may be wondering why we named this layer "Grain" and not something more obvious like "Dust & Scratches". The reason is simply because there is an actual Dust & Scratches filter in Photoshop which is used to remove things like, well, dust and scratches. To avoid confusion, I thought it would be easier to name the layer based on the name of the filter we used to create the effect, which was the "Grain" filter. It doesn't really matter what name you give to your layers as long as the name makes sense to you.

Step 22: Add A "Levels" Adjustment Layer

One of the things that tends to happen to photos over time is that they begin to fade. The deep blacks and bright whites in the image become dark and light shades of gray, resulting in a loss of contrast in the photo and an overall "dull" appearance. Normally, Photoshop's Levels command is used to restore those shadows and highlights that have fallen victim to the ravages of time, but we can just as easily use Levels to advance the aging process.

Before we can do anything though, we need to add a Levels adjustment layer, so with the "Grain" layer still selected, click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and select Levels from the list:

Step 23: Reduce The Overall Contrast Of The Image With The Output Sliders

When the Levels dialog box appears, look down at the very bottom and you'll see a gradient bar going from black on the left to white on the right, with two small sliders below it on either end - a black one on the left and a white one on the right. These are called output sliders and they control the maximum tonal range of an image. We can use them to control how dark the blacks in an image can appear and how bright the whites can appear.

As I mentioned a moment ago, the deep blacks in a photo tend to lighten over time, so to lighten the blacks in our image, simply click on the black slider on the left and drag it towards the right. As you drag, you'll see the darkest parts of the image begin to lighten. We don't want to go too far, so continue dragging until you've set the number in the left value box of the Output Levels option to around 30:

The bright whites in the photo need to be darkened a little as well, so click on the white slider on the right and begin dragging it towards the left. As you drag, you'll see the brightest areas in the image begin to fade. Again, we don't want to go too far, so drag the slider until you've set the number in the right value box of the Output Levels option to around 235:

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Levels dialog box. If we look in our Layers palette, we can see the Levels adjustment layer that we've added:

And if we look at our image, we can see that it has now lost a bit of its overall contrast. To make it easier to see what we've done, I've split my photo up into a "before and after" image. The left side is how the image looked before fading it with the Levels adjustment layer, and the right side is how it appears after fading it. Notice how the blacks are no longer pure black and the whites are no longer pure white:

We're just about done, and you could actually stop here if you wanted to. But as a final step, I'm going to bring back just a hint of the photo's original color, and I'll do that next!