Using Textures with Photos
February 16, 2010 in Inspiration, Personal, Photography, Photoshop, Workflow
Awhile back I used a photo texture to add a little extra dimension of interest to a series of photos I had been working on and one of my readers asked for a little insight into how to use textures. So, here we go!
The thing with using a texture is to make sure that you don’t overdo it. As with most effects, and I’m guilty of it too, it is very easy to keep piling on the filters or textures, or pushing the sliders farther and farther to the right, which can often lead to a pretty messy image. And, as post-processors, we are often too close to it to notice when we’ve gone too far.
To quote from a couple of movies “Small moves, Ellie, small moves” (from Contact) and “Aim small, miss small” (from The Patriot). Since the temptation is often to keep going I often try to remember the spirit behind these two quotes that if you keep control over your adjustments you will have better luck hitting your target.
This is not at all to say that you shouldn’t let inspiration strike you and experiment and go above and beyond to see what might happen. But you will often find that subtlety will take you far.
Likewise, not only is it possible to go a bit overboard with an effect, but you can also hold onto it for too long. Once again it’s something I’m guilty of too, if you find an effect that you like you will use it all the time. Don’t. It’s one thing to develop a signature style, but it’s another to beat a dead horse. You shouldn’t use the same effects all the time. It will get old pretty fast, and not every image benefits from the same treatment.
In the following images I’m going to walk through what I did to add a texture to one of my photos. The steps are included in the captions, so please click on the first image and step through the others as we go to check out what i did.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Leave a comment below along with a link to some examples of how you use photo textures in your own work!
[...] 1 votes vote Using Textures with Photos Awhile back I used a photo texture to add a little extra dimension of interest to a series of [...]
Thanks for that great, quick walkthru.
On the middle picture you said that you applied a curve to the sky. How did you select the sky (only) in that image? I know that the wands will select almost all of it relatively easily, but the parts showing through the trees and through the tower itself are what give me problems. Any suggestions?
I used the Quick Selection Tool (under the Magic Wand in the toolbar). I knew I was only going to be making a fairly subtle adjustment and didn’t think the areas through the tower or trees would really show the effect all that much, so I ignored them.
The best starting place for getting all those areas, though, would be to start with Select>Color Range and select a number of points around the sky and then enter Quick Mask (Q) and paint out the other areas of the image that were selected that you don’t want to apply the curve to. Alternatively, use Color Range, apply your curve, and then paint out the unwanted areas in the curve’s mask.
Great tip Jason. I have not used a texture yet but this makes me want to go try it. Any good sources of texture images that you can recommend?
Great, easy to follow tip. Thanks!
There are lots of places to find interesting textures. A good free one my friend Eric over at Pepper Ink turned me on to is http://www.cgtextures.com but really you can find them anywhere or even take your own. I like old-looking, worn papers and stone and metal textures that have a real rugged, grungy feel.
[...] week I shared with you a process for Using Textures with Photos on a shot of the Eiffel Tower I took a couple of years ago. It’s a style that I haven’t [...]
Great tip. I somehow restricted myself from using textures with my images. After reading this tip, I tried using a texture with one of my old photographs of an architectural building in my town. More than the colored version, I now like the textured feel
http://bighugelabs.com/onblack.php?id=4395022650
Thank you!