Tutorial Using Adobe Photoshop

There are many ways you can change your textures to suit to your own style of photography or even for a specific image. Some texture makers vignette all of their textures. Vignetting can be useful when you want to show more texture on the edges than in the middle. This might be particularly useful if you are using the texture for portraits. I tend not to vignette most of my premium textures as I find them to be more versatile without the vignetting. You can always add a vignette, but you can’t take it away (from a flattened file.)

The Original Texture

Below is my texture: Arcadian from the French Kiss Texture Collection I

Besides a slight “corner burn” It’s fairly homogeneous. Since I tend to use textures as backgrounds, especially in florals and still lifes, I love all that yummy detail throughout. (A little trivia—I’ve named this Arcadian as the Arcadians of Louisiana have their origins in this region of France where I live.)

The Texture With A Vignette

If you have found you prefer having a lightened middle with vignetted edge effect, you can easily achieve this.

I have created a “golden orb” overlay to lighten the middle of my textures. I’ve uploaded this file as a free download.

Below are the steps for making the golden orb.
I’ve included this for those who want to know.

1. I made a circular selection, making sure it was centered in the file using guides. (View / New Guide) I placed guides at the mid-points both horizontally and vertically and drew out my elliptical marquee holding down the Option key (ALT on PC) and starting my circle where the guides intersect.
2. Using Select / Refine Edge, I feathered the selection to it’s maximum amount as well as expanding the selection
3. I saved this as a new channel.
4. I added noise to the channel (Filter / Noise / Add Noise) I selected Uniform and left monochromatic unchecked. I added around 2.5%
5. I then loaded the channel by Command/Control clicking it.
6. Going back to the layers panel, I made a new layer and filled it with a creamy color.
7. I then set the Blend Mode to Screen and the Opacity to 50%.

By the way, I chose this method rather than using a gradient as the result was closer to what I wanted than when I used a gradient.

The Download

Golden Orb Overlay

Download this Free overlay:

Using the Free Overlay:

1. Copy and paste the overlay into a layer above your texture. Re-size if needed. It must fit exactly.
2. Set the Blend Mode to Screen. (I’ve found this works best, but feel free to experiment. If you want a more golden color, try Overlay.)
3. Set the Opacity to your liking. I used 50%.

Save

Leslie Nicole

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