Becky Earl – be ART

First off let me tell you I am not a HUGE textures person. I like them, but hardly ever use them. The photograph really would just absolutely NEED it. I used it on a few on the latest bridal shots. I feel it worked with a lot of those because they lent to a more vintage feel. But since I feel I do more “lifestyle” images, textures just aren’t a big part of my post process. BUT, since the bridal post I have gotten quite a few inquiries on how to do textures…so here we go.

Before you start make sure you pick an image that would look great with texture. Then…you will need some textures. There are many places on line where you can buy textures. I have bought a few different ones from Nichole Van. You can also go HERE Deviant Art. They have many free textures that you can use. Google free textures and tons will come up OR you can take pictures of your own textures. You can take pictures of tree bark, textured walls, peeling paint, basically anything with well…..texture. I have a file called, you guessed it, Textures and place all of them in there.

My adorable model for today is a gorgeous girl from The Secret Workshop I went to last year. I was looking over the images and decided to use this.

Okay Step 1- Edit your picture to your liking. I usually will edit skin, color and contrast before the texture is applied. Here is my image to begin with.

Step 2- Choose a texture. I have fancier textures, but for this I decided to go more “urban” since it’s more of an urban shot.

Step 3- Apply your texture to your image. I am sure there are many ways to do this and probably easier ways…but this is how I do it…
-Open your image in photoshop.
-In another window open your texture of choice.
-On your texture image grab the marque tool (circled below) then drag that tool from one corner to the other. So you see “marching ants” around your image.

-Then you will copy. I am on a pc so I just hit Control C.
-You can now close this image (if you like) I do because I hate knowing things are open all over…I’m crazy
-Now open up your image you would like to have your texture applied to. Paste your texture right onto it. I just hit Control V. Photoshop will make a new layer automatically.
Should look like this…

-Now you want to hit Free Transform. On my puter I hit Control T. You can also hit Edit and go down to the Free Transform option. This will let you move any and all sides of your texture. (Make sure Layer 1 is selected and not background). Drag the corners of your texture so it covers your edited image completely.
-Then hit enter or double click inside the texture image. This will set it in place on your image.
Now, the fun begins…..
-We need to choose a blending option. I “usually” choose between Overlay, Soft Light and Hard Light. BUT you can play with all of them and see what you like. It really depends on the image for me. On this one I chose Hard Light. Let’s go big

-You can adjust your opacity to whatever you like. On this I am going with about 70%.
-Now this part you can EITHER mask back the skin by creating a clipping mask or you can do what I do and use my handy dandy SMUDGE tool. (Looks like the hand with the pointer finger) If you use the smudge tool don’t create a mask. Just do it right on the layer.
-The great thing about the smudge tool is that it will only smudge away the texture, but not the color of the texture. Because I don’t care for it when pictures have color textures but the skin is erased or masked back to the original color and it just doesn’t look right. So this is a great tool for texture.
-Once you have your smudge tool selected then you just drag down where you want the texture to be gone. I usually do all skin on the face and actually most anywhere with skin, but will leave a tad on arms and a tad on clothing. Just so there is a good transition to the full texture. The arrow on the face is where I dragged the texture down.

-I do that as much or little as I like and then if there are any other edits I want to apply after that then go ahead.
FINAL PRODUCT…

Hope this helped.

Just a reminder….this helpful hint is for photographers or people who take their own pictures. Please remember that if you have purchased photos from a professional photographer and you were not given full copyright, adding textures or adding any changes to a photo is against the law. Please only play with your own photos

Thanks everyone. Let me know if you have any other questions.

-be