Age a photograph
Paper age blends the source toward a warm monochrome print and lowers color separation. Scratches add narrow vertical marks, Dust places light and dark specks, and Edge wear stains the corners more heavily than the center.
The damage is procedural rather than a tiled overlay. That avoids a repeated texture edge and lets the same controls work on small web images and large camera files.
Control the damage pattern
Set the broad color change with Paper age first. Add scratches sparingly when faces or text need to remain legible, then increase Dust for uneven surface marks. Edge wear affects the perimeter, where handled prints tend to show discoloration.
Texture seed selects one fixed arrangement. Step through a few seeds at final settings and keep the one whose largest marks miss the subject.
Example: prop photo for a story
A convincing “found photograph” needs the damage to agree with its supposed history. For a wartime-letter prop, push Paper age to 85 so almost no color survives, keep Scratches near 30, and let Edge wear dominate at 70, since a print carried in a pocket wears at the edges first. For a 1970s family album look, drop Paper age to 40 so muted color remains, and rely on Dust alone.
Downscale the source before aging if it came from a modern camera. A tack-sharp 4000px image with period damage reads as fake; a slight softening sells the era better than more scratches do.
Order of operations
The grade applies before the damage, which matches physical reality: a print fades over its whole life, while scratches and dust accumulate on top of the faded surface. This is why reversing your workflow, adding damage first and judging color later, tends to produce settings that fight each other. Settle the tone, then distress it.