Its Texture Thursday time!!
Everyone joining me from last week... Welcome back! And, if you're here for the first time, I hope you totally join in on the fun! The whole point of Texture Thursday is to look at photography from a different point of view. Meaning that you can either enter a photo that has texture already in it or add some of your own. If your not quite sure what I mean I give examples HERE.
This week I wanted to give you a “how to” on adding textures. When adding textures you want to make sure that you still keep your photo natural looking. You don’t want to take away from the photo. All you want is to give it depth. Saying that is a lot simpler than actually doing it. So be careful and make sure you are using your editing eye.
You always want to start out by doing a clean edit on your photo. The better your photo is the better it will look when adding a texture.
A clean edit for me is fixing the contrast/white balance levels etc. I also took out the people that were walking. (I use the clone stamp in Photoshop to accomplish that.)
Once that was done I “placed” the brown texture I have shown below on top of my photo. I changed my “layer” to Soft light. This should make the picture show through the texture you placed on top of it. At this point you want to change the opacity to a lower percentage. ALWAYS change it at least some what because if you don’t you photo will not look natural.
You want it to look natural.
Now lets say your adding a Texture onto a portrait. You want to make sure that you erase the texture off of their skin or paint there skin with a light/dark color. Because if you don’t it will make it unnatural and that's what we are trying to avoid.
(ps if you click the photos below you can download them to use for free.)
Normally when I add texture onto buildings or landscapes I don’t erase any unless the texture looks funky on some parts of the picture. With this photo I didn't erase any of the brown texture.
Once I was done adding the brown texture I wanted to bring more depth into the sky because it was washed out. So I added some clouds (which is the above photo.) I only added the clouds to the sky part of the picture and I erased it off the buildings. I also reduce the opacity on that texture as well. Once I was done adding my textures I flattened my image and then used a action that added a little haze to the photo to give it a little more drama. I reduced the noise and was done.
Take your time and check your photo. I still see places on my “finished” photo that I would fix or change. Learning to add textures takes time. So don’t get frustrated.
For the rest of this week I want to give you all a challenge. Go HERE and download this photo and edit it with textures, actions or whatever and then come back next week and link it up to Texture Thursday. Lets share our editing tips and help each other out and please if you have questions email me. I will love to help you out with anything.
I will pick the best edit and high light them the following week. I'm excited to see what you all come up with.
Any who, from now on I will be posting the winners of last week on my Texture Thursday Pinterest Page. If you are highlighted on there please make sure to grab your winner button HERE. And congrats!
Now its your turn lets see what Textures you have this week!
Don't forget the guidelines for the linky:
- Link only to your post dedicated to Texture Thursday not your main URL.
- Anyone can join in at anytime.
- Grab my button so others can find the linky and join in the fun too!
- Try to visit others blogs and give some comment love! Because we all love comments.
****Also remember I will be posting all the photos I like through out the week on my FACEBOOK page and also on the Texture Thursday Pinterest Page. see if yours is one them****
**I reversed the order of the link list so watch for your
thumbnail at the TOP of the list once you post it!**
