A Summery Color Wash Texture

Summer is around the corner and I find myself wanting light, bright colors for my flower images, so I created a texture based on a watercolor wash. I liked it so much, I made several summery color variations. On this peony, I’ve used, Pomme Verte (Green Apple).

A Little Post-Processing Love

As you can see from the before view of this peony, the details are there but the image needs a bit of love. I’ll use burning and dodging, filters and a texture to portray a portrait of this peony as I saw it. I’ve included a screen grab below of the layer panel for you to refer to.

Base Edits

• I first cloned out dirt specks on the flower.
• I emphasized the layered, ruffled petals of this peony by increasing the edge definition. I used an overlay burn/dodge layer to lighten the highlights along the edges on some petals. I also used slight color burning in a few placed to further define edges.
• I then used a levels adjustment layer to increase contrast overall.

The Texture

• French Kiss Texture, Pomme Verte (Green Apple). Set to Blend Mode: Multiply at 100% opacity.
• I darkened the texture in a few select places to get better contrast with a few of the outer petals. I’ve used a burn/dodge overlay layer as a clipping mask so the darkening is restricted to the texture. (see video on clipping masks)

Filters and Finishing

As with most of my images, I’ve used the Topaz Labs Filters Photoshop Bundle*.

• I first merged the base layers before running filters by using the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + Shift + E (mac) or Control + Alt+Shift +E (pc).
• Then I applied the Topaz Labs Adjust* filter with Photo Pop. I didn’t want the texture to pop as much as the flower so I’ve used a layer mask to take the outer edges of the texture back to the original.
• To sharpen, I used Topaz Labs Detail* filter. Again, I didn’t want to sharpen the texture, so I used a layer mask to limit the sharpening to the flower area.
• I finished by adding a bit more contrast for a final fine-tune.

Find this texture in the mini-collection:

Vintage Summer Color Wash Textures

* Topaz Labs Filters is an Affiliate Link. I will receive a commission on any purchases. Thank you for your support.

Leslie Nicole

American Photographer and Designer living in France with my French husband, 2 Weimaraners and Cat Rescues. Camera, Mac, studio, garden.