Photoshop Tutorial: Adding Textures

Textures are a great way to add a little drama to a photo without adding a whole ton of work. They can give a great vintage effect or even add grunge to a photo to make it more edgy. In order to understand how to add textures to a photo, you need to understand how layer modes work.

This is how my workspace is usually set up. I have my layers panel at the bottom left corner. If you don’t have your layers panel open, you can open it by going

Window > Layers

If you have your work-space how you want it then you can go ahead and open the photo you would like to add texture to.

I am going to add a vintage texture to this photo to kinda age it just a bit. I have this paper texture I found at:

 http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120728131606/assassinscreed/images/8/8b/Old_paper.jpg

Once you have this texture (or the texture of your choice) downloaded to your computer, drag and drop the texture from your files onto the top of your photograph in Photoshop. Resize the texture if it does not cover the entire photograph. The texture’s layer should be the only thing you see and this is where layer masks come in. Right now the texture’s layer mode is set on normal. If I were to change the layer mode the underlying image will be able to be seen. 

These are a few of my favorite layer modes I like to use with photographs. I kept the opacity at 100% so that you can see the effect they really have.

1: Normal

2: Darken

3: Multiply

4: Color Burn

5: Linear Burn

6: Darker Color

7: Overlay

8: Soft Light

9: Hard Light

Try out all of the layer modes to see what they all do. They all have a different effect and can help you reach the style you might be going for. Each layer mode looks different on different photographs as well. If you find one you like for one image it might not look as good on another. For this particular image that I am editing, my favorite layer mode is multiply.

I don’t like how intense the texture is so to tone it down I will lower the opacity to about 75%

If you like how it looks you can definitely stop there but I want my flowers to have a little less of the texture on them so they stand out better. To do so I will create a layer mask for my texture layer.

Select your brush tool and set the hardness to 0. Lower the brush opacity to 25% Make sure the color you will be painting with is black.

Any part of the photo that I will paint black will be erased. I lowered the opacity because I did not want all of it to be gone, only some of it. If you want to bring the texture back then you can paint the layer mask with white.

Now to finish with the final touches I will add a curves layer just to lighten it up a little

In order to save your photo as a jpeg you have to flatten the image. To do so right click any layer then click flatten layer. Save it and then you are done!

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or show me what you used this technique with! Thanks for reading!!!

-Ruthie's Magical Camera

Unravel

My latest photo titled Unravel leaves questions to what I meant when I decided to create such a weird piece. As an artist I find myself constantly comparing my art to other artists determining if I am better or worse. No matter how hard I try, this damaging habit sneaks itself back into my mind any time I see a photograph. Sometimes it just causes me to Unravel. Comparison is harmful, jealous, and bitter, but what fuels comparison is the strive to be the best. Striving to be great at what you do is what pushes us as humans to constantly better ourselves. It means we don't settle for good enough. 

The most difficult thing for me as an artist is understanding that my best is enough. I hope I never lose the drive to take pictures and work as hard as I can on them, and I hope I never demand so much of myself that I am disappointed when I feel inadequate to another artist. I am not one for new year's resolutions, but this is one that I need to work on for all year and then for the rest of my life because as long as the strive is there the habit of comparison will always be present.