A & AE Challenge #4 - Textures - KARMA TIME

[BoxerPetesMom]

the theme for this artistic and abstract expression challenge is TEXTURES.

i know a lot of you have been looking forward to this one and i am really excited to share how it is done ~ or at least how i do it.

the objective of this challenge is to take any photo of your choice and overlay it with another image to give it texture or age.

first you will need your images {go get some if you don't have them already!} and then you will need your textures. these you can take yourself or you can locate and download them online. sometimes i take images of tree bark, dirt, asphalt, pebbles, etc. but if you wish you can go to the following link and download free textures. the only thing they and i ask is that you credit them with the use of their textures by including their name somewhere in the body of your post.


free textures - Flickr: Search
in the thumbnail images, click a texture you like. just above the image there will be a few things you can click on ~ a star with 'add to favorites', a magnifying glass with 'show all sizes' and a picture frame with 'add to gallery'. you want to click the magnifying glass to download the large or original size and then on the next page click download original size.


now, on to the fun stuff!

1. open your image. {eta :: please excuse my dust ~ this is untouched as there really is not much need to remove them when adding textures}.




2. {make sure you also have your texture(s) open}. with the main image open, drag and drop your texture(s) over top the main image. for the photo above i used two images both by the same person.



3. resize to fit, if needed. an easy way do this is by going to edit- free transform.


4. over to the right you should see both the texture and your image in the layers palette (the texture on top).

5. in the layers palette change the texture layer blending mode to the desired type. (default is normal).
Play around with these! I usually use a couple different ones at different opacities.
ex: soft light 50% and pin light 20%.. vivid 30%...
change the levels and curves, colors... etc. even add more textures. ( i usually always use two textures on my textured images)



if the texture is too harsh (usually is on faces) erase with a soft brush at about 30% over those areas that show the texture too strong.

here is the finished image :



the textures i used were by the artist borealnz.

have fun and don't forget to give karma!

[Bob B]

This is going to be fun, thanks for posting

[Athena]

Excellent Heather! Can you give us links to some of your favorite free textures?

[rjalex]

A little tip. In Photoshop, when you select a layer blending mode, using the up and down arrows will let you breeze through all of them and you sill quickly get a grasp of each one's effect.
Good luck to all of you.
Bob

[BoxerPetesMom]

Originally Posted by Bob B

This is going to be fun, thanks for posting

i'm looking forward to seeing what everyone posts ~ it is definitely going to be fun!

Originally Posted by Athena

Excellent Heather! Can you give us links to some of your favorite free textures?

the link that says "free textures - Flickr: Search" takes you to the many different free textures that i go through. i also use purchased textures but i did not list those as they can get expensive even though you usually get a whole collection of them.

however, borealnz is one that i used most in the beginning. the link to her follows.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/borealnz/sets/72157610307314214/

Free Textures - a set on Flickr

Originally Posted by rjalex

A little tip. In Photoshop, when you select a layer blending mode, using the up and down arrows will let you breeze through all of them and you sill quickly get a grasp of each one's effect.
Good luck to all of you.
Bob

bob, thank you for pointing that out. i failed to mention that and that is a great tip.

[BoxerPetesMom]

um, wow...i have no idea why the links showed up like that. weird. i tried to correct it but it went from one to two..

eta::got rid of the one that didn't work.

[rjalex]

FYI,
After your phrase "The link to her follows I see a box with a title but a totally black rectangle.

The subsequent link opens up a Flickr page.

Bob

[BoxerPetesMom]

Originally Posted by rjalex

FYI,
After your phrase "The link to her follows I see a box with a title but a totally black rectangle.

The subsequent link opens up a Flickr page.

Bob

yeah, i know. i have no idea why that box is showing up like that. that's what is still confusing me. and for some reason the link to borealnz is showing up as a quote. weird.

[Athena]

I stuck the subsequent link in. I had to do it as a quote because it kept forcing that box on me too. Frustrating!

However if you go back to the awful box and point your cursor to the text in it, you'll find that it's clickable! I only realized this after I put the other link in. I decided though to leave both so we'd all find a way to them.

[palters]

My question about the challenge is this; is the challenge limited to photoshop enhanced textures or are natural textures created by product choice and lighting allowed?

You do say "the objective of this challenge is to take any photo of your choice and overlay it with another image to give it texture or age." But what if I can create that in camera without the use of photoshop?