by Marianne Drenthe | www.marmaladephotography.com
We have all seen them – amazing photographs created with a little help from textures.
So what ARE textures exactly? Textures add an additional level of dimensionality to a photograph. Textures are often used to make newer photos look a little worn, dingy, scratched up, weathered, etc. They can be used to add color where no color exists (ie: a blown out sky could benefit from the addition of texture). The trick to achieving a great effect with the help of textures is to choose a photograph that has just a slight variation in tonality and texture. When you choose to overlay a texture over an image you simply drag & drop the texture layer onto the photograph you wish to enhance and change the layer mode (my favorite is to change to OVERLAY but MULTIPLY, SCREEN and SOFT LIGHT sometimes work well, I encourage you to play with the layer modes to come up with some cool combos!). Textures that are overwhelming (loads of contrast or a big mix of high low texturizing) can be difficult to manipulate on top of a photo unless it’s already a busy shot with texture of its’ own. For my client work I tend to prefer subtle textures that enhance an already strong image with a toning, burnt or hazy effect.
Take for example this texture – the texture image used to lay over the top of the photo is a black & white manipulated texture I created myself. I used a combination of photographic techniques with Photoshop manipulation to create this texture so that it produces just a hint of texture and increases contrast in certain areas producing an almost burnt edge effect. I used my Isle Of Palm Sandstorm texture here (the texture is based on some sand I photographed then later manipulated):
See the subtle nature of the texture as it highlights the background? I took my time erasing back my focal point (in this case this beautiful little girl) to produce a nicely finished image, I don’t particularly love texture going over focal points unless I am trying for a dreamy effect which I do on occasion.
I’m offering up the Isle of Palms texture as a freebie giveaway for the next couple of days…feel free to share this tutorial with your friends – this link will only be downloadable for the next week! Enjoy! (file is called ISLEOFPALMSMONOSANDSTORM.jpg). If it opens in a browser window then go ahead and just save to whatever part of your hard drive you’d like it to save to.
FINALLY…So how do you make textures? That’s the easy part! The simplest and most common way is to find common everyday flat surfaces and photograph them. For my own meanderings into the world of texture I enjoy surfaces as diverse as driveways, pathways, brick, stone and all sorts of other crazy odd surfaces (I once photographed a raindrop laden, glass covered backlit restaurant menu on the famous Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas – it’s one of my favorite of all textures). That’s it! The great thing about textures is that you can take them into Photoshop and desaturate or change the color range, use your Photoshop skills to create amazing textures all your own!