Textures

[Ashanali]

So textures... how do you use them (this will be the very basic version of what to do)

Well, the first thing you need is an image that you love

The second thing you need is an image of a texture. Textures can be anything. They can be a photo of a mouldy concrete wall, crinkled paper, pages from a book etc. You can even jump onto flickr or photobucket and search 'free textures' and there will be thousands for you to choose from. Heaps of people create textures and allow people to use them.

Now you open both images in photoshop, click on your desired texture and drag the texture image over the top of your original image

resize your texture image and drag the corners so it fits your original image

Now you can play around with the texture layer and do all sorts of magical stuff. In the layer palette, you can change the opacity of the layer if you like. Also change the mode. It should be in 'standard' mode but go through and change it to anything you want. Multiply, screen, hard light, linear dodge - all of them have different effects on the texture layer. Find the one you like.

From there you can brush back area of the layer to show through images of your original image underneath that you want to draw emphasis to.

Thats it really (in a very simple version) - just play and have fun. You can get lost playing with textures for hours! There are also some really good flickr groups for textures where you can go and see what other people do and post your own samples.

Creating a texture

The best textures are lighter in colour and don't have a huge variation in tone. There are always exceptions to this though.

If you are interested in creating textures, there are so many way you can do it. Here are two easy versions.

The photo texture:

It's as simple as noticing something like a sandstone wall that has some nice cracks and rippling appearing on it. Or maybe you have opened an old book and the paper texture is starting to yellow and mould a little. You might even wander down to your back shed and notice an old empty picture frame sitting in the corner that looks interesting.

So what do you do?

Take a photo of it

Head home and open in photoshop

crop out any 'information' you don't need

correct the levels/curves so that the image will work as a texture layer. (keep in mind that lighter is better for most images)

Done! Try it out over the top of one of your photos and see how you go.

The 'created' texture:

Some people like to create textures using the range of brushes in photoshop. To do this it's as simple as...

Open a new blank image

choose a background colour

choose a 'brush' with a slightly different colour to the background

you might want to use the brush in a different mode to normal (maybe 'overlay', 'hard light', 'screen' etc)

Play! Have fun! Experiment!

Some people like to dodge or burn the edges of textures to create vignettes. This is all personal choice.

When you think you have created something you like, try it out over the top of an image and see how you go.

The 'merged' texture:

Most great textures are a merging of both techniques. One of the textures I use quite often is a photo of clouds, with a photo of linen placed over the top and faded back, then there are brush marks over the top of it and the edges are burnt in.

There is no limit to the extremes you can go to to create textures. I have seen people even photograph object like rulers and staplers to create a very interesting texture to lay over the top of an image.

Experiment and enjoy!

ETA: I forgot to say that there are MANY texture sharing group on Flickr. You can either use their textures or look to them for inspiration when creating your own. ;)

Edited March 16, 2009 by Ashanali

[lea]

is photo shop available online, or is it some thing you add to your hard drive?

sorry, i know nothing about computers or cameras. :D ;)

[Guest Tess32]

is photo shop available online, or is it some thing you add to your hard drive?

sorry, i know nothing about computers or cameras. :D ;)

It's a program you have to buy and/or download and is not free.

[lea]

Ta.

[ruthless]

You can get a 30 day trial for free. I think you can also buy a limited version of the program which is a lot cheaper than the full version.

ETA Thanks for the instruction Ash ;)

Edited March 16, 2009 by ruthless

[Ashanali]

lea - you can get a free trial online for 30 days. You could also look into getting Photoshop Elements which is a limited version of photoshop and only costs about $80 (compared to $1000+ for the full version). ;)

[Bow Wow]

Thanks Ashanali. ;) I love playing with textures!!!!!!

[lea]

lea - you can get a free trial online for 30 days. You could also look into getting Photoshop Elements which is a limited version of photoshop and only costs about $80 (compared to $1000+ for the full version).

Beauty, ill give it a whirl.

;) :D

[lea]

OK. i now have photoshop elements 7.

Probably the wrong one knowing me. but i cant figure out how to do what you said to do Ash?

can it be done from the program i have?

or do i need another one?

i hate being so puta and camera stupid.