Tutorial for GIMP 2.6 and Photoshop CS4

 I was asked to make a tutorial for the effect I did in this photo:

Now I don't have the exact original photo anymore, but I have similar ones. I'll try to demonstrate this with them.

I processed the photo in GIMP 2.6. This can be applied into Photoshop as well.

1. Open your photo in GIMP/PS.

2. Then go to the curves tool (GIMP: colors > curves / PS CS4: either curves adjustment layer or Image > Adjustments > Curves) and if your photo is as dark as mine then lighten it up a bit by pulling the main curve up.

3. Then adjust the curves. Experimenting is the way to go here. Every picture is different so the same adjustments don't necessarily apply. Here's what I did:

As you can see, I made very subtle adjustments here, but you can go more lomo if you like.

Experiment experiment experiment and stop when you're happy. :)

4. Then I added the texture. I've downloaded it from Flickr from the user called WHEREISHERE.

Without this texture, the effect wouldn't even exist. You can use any texture you like as long as it's a light color. I usually like to use a texture with scratched surface. It creates this fun scratched and faded look.

I flipped it 90 degrees and added it as a new layer on top the photo.

In GIMP you do this by adding a new layer, opening the texture and copy/pasting it on to the new layer. Then scale it to the right size so it overlays the whole photo.

In PS CS4 you open the texture, use the black arrow tool and drag it onto the photo (this only works if you have all the pictures in floating windows) and let it go. It will create a new layer for itself. Then make sure you have the texture layer activated and go to Edit > Transform > Scale and scale it to right size.

5. Then you'll have to adjust the opacity of the texture layer. I first put the layer mode into "Hard light" and then adjusted the opacity into what I thought looked good.

As you can now see, the texture does most of the faded look that I was going for.

6. Then I just added the handwriting with a brush. Just Google "handwriting+brush+GIMP(or photoshop)" and you'll find cool handwriting brushes.

And there you go! All Star effect is all done. :)

Hope this was helpful. Let me know if there's something you don't get. I'll be happy to help!