V a n e s s a Pike-Russell

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Adobe Photoshop and Photography Tutorials

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Tutorials: Add layers of textures to your images

Published in Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

Sunday, 11 January 2009 17:30

Adding texture and drama to your images using textures and layers

You've seen them in explore, online and in magazines but just how are they created? One of the wonderful thing about Adobe Photoshop (and clones) is that you can add layers of textures over the image you are editing and adjust the opacity and blend mode to create wonderful textures, mood and story to your image.

First convert the images that you wish to use as texture layers to Adobe Photoshop Files (.psd) either by using ‘File: Save As” and saving to your Program Files>Adobe>Adobe Photoshop CS3>Presets>Textures
Next open the image you wish to add texture layers to.

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Before and after

Next we will work on the blend mode and opacity. Make sure that the texture layer is above your image in the layers pallet and that it is selected.

The first layer option on the left is is blend mode. Click to select a mode from the drop-down list. My favourite is Overlay but it is best to try more than one blend mode to find the one that is most fitting to your image and texture layer blending. Now you will click on the second layer option of opacity. It is important that the opacity (or transparent nature) of the texture is adjusted for your image. You might wish for your image to be dominant and have just a hint of the texture layer or make it the feature - it depends on your image and layer and personal preferences.

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Some samples of my work edited with layers of textures by ghostbones

As you can see it gives a lovely sepia, moody image result and is easier than it looks.

Resources

TEXTURES

"Light Charcoal paper (Free Texture)" by borealnz [?]

FAKE TTV TEXTURES

"I am a texture" by kittykatfish [?]

"frame" by telzey [?]

SCRAPBOOKING TEXTURES

"Texture: Real Old Lace w Scrapbook Paper" by playingwithpsp [?]

Tutorials: Converting from colour to sepia or black and white using photoshop

Published in Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

Monday, 11 August 2008 04:01

Converting from colour to sepia or black and white using photoshop

(aka Black and White - more than just desaturation)

So you have a colour photo that you want to convert to black and white, monotone or duotone.
There are so many ways to do it, those listed below are just a few, listed in reverse order of my personal preference.

Image>Adjustments>Desaturate

Now you may want to desaturate an image but this is a quick and easy, very rough method.

Image>Adjustment>Desaturate

desat

This just removes all colour from an image without filtering by channels (R, G and B) and often looks a little flat. You can't tweak the way certain colours represent in the black and white result as with other methods. It usually gets an OK result but wait until you see the other methods. If you are creating a Duotone image (two tones, not just black and white but black and another colour) then you will be using the desaturate adjustment in order to switch to Duotone mode - more on that later. If at all possible try using the other methods, especially the Image>Adjustments Black and White feature that started in the CS range (CS, CS2, CS3). This is my least favourite method of converting Colour to B&W.