Before and after processing with texture overlays …
Post-processing to soften, add warmth & alter the mood of an image.
Photoshop Texture Recipe
I like the gentle facial details of the stone angel, and the areas of soft focus in this image, but the pale colour and texture of the stone looked cold and hard. Overlaying the image with warm coloured textures adds a little warmth, and using textures with directional lines lend a hint of animation. This recipe assumes a level of familiarity with applying and selectively removing textures in Photoshop. If you’re not familiar with the processes involved, please check out my tutorials.
Textures
From Left to Right:
Foil Folds – a shiny folded foil in light soft creamy golden tones
Milk Urn – soft cinnamon coloured weathered metallic texture
Pashmina Pink – a soft peachy pink fabric texture with a slight sheen
Glorious Song Of Old – text from an old hymn on a transparent ground
(to view the textures at a larger size, click on the thumbnails below)
Recipe
- Foil Folds: Saturation 50% (to add depth with interesting tonal variations). To reduce the effect of the texture over the angel’s face apply a layer mask & with a large soft brush @ 50% opacity remove the texture over part of the face.
- Milk Urn: Softlight 100% (to add grunge). To soften the texture over the angel’s face, select areas with a lasso tool & then apply Filter: Gaussian Blur @ 5 – 20% to the selected areas.
- Pashmina Pink: soft light 100%. What could be softer or warmer than pashmina?
- Glorious Song Of Old 48px: Screen 100%. Remove areas of text to taste using a layer mask & soft brush @100% opacity.
- Glorious Song Of Old 60px: SoftLight 70%. Remove areas of text to taste using a layer mask & soft brush @100% opacity.
- Glorious Song Of Old 72px: ColorBurn 15%. Remove areas of text to taste using a layer mask & soft brush @100% opacity.
When using text as a texture, I like to alter the size & position of the text on each layer so the words overlap each other in areas. Overlapping the words creates patterns from the letters and spaces. Applying different layer modes also alters the effects of the each layer of text on the layers of text below, breaking the text up and emphasising patterns.