Quick Start Texture Tutorial
Tutorial: Beginning Level
This quick-start tutorial will have you working with textures right away and to make it really easy to follow along, I’ve decided to give you the files. Two high-resolution original files. One Anemone flower photograph and a Fine Art, grunge texture. Downloads At The End of the Post.
You’ll need the texture, Saffron Fields and the Anemone flower image. Got the files? Great, let’s get started.
Step One: Open both documents in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
You’ll have this Japanese Anemone image.
Flower download image for your practice.
And this High-Resolution Texture that I created just for this tutorial. It’s called Saffron Fields.
Free French Kiss Texture
Step Two: Place the Texture into the Anemone File
This isn’t my favorite method to put a texture into my destination document, but as it’s the most basic way, I’ve decided to start with this and then tell you a better way in another post.
- Select the entire texture with CMD (for MAC) / CNTRL (Windows) + A
- Copy the texture CMD/CNTRL + C
- Select the Anemone file and paste in the texture with CMD/CNTRL + V
Texture pasted above the anemone image
You’ll now see the Texture document in the layer above the background layer in the Anemone document. I have purposefully made the Anemone document a little bit smaller than the texture document. Since there is interesting detail along the edges of the texture that we don’t want to lose, we need to scale down the texture layer to fit the document.
Step Two: Resizing the Texture Layer
Again, this is not my favorite way to do this, but let’s start here and later I’ll show you my preferred method.
- Make sure the texture layer is selected in the Layer Panel.
- Open up the Transform tool. You can do this via the menu: Edit>Transform>Scaleor CMD/CNTRL + T.
- The layer will now have a bounding box that extends beyond the document window.You may need to zoom out to see it.
- Grab one of the square handles at the bottom right and drag up to the edge of the document. note: It doesn’t matter with this texture, but if you were resizing an image you would want to constrain the proportions by holding down the shift key when you drag.
- Tip: Make sure that Snap / Document Bounds is selected from the View menu.
- Hit Enter to apply the transformation.
Step Three: Setting the Layer Blend Mode
Let’s set the blend mode. Blend modes determine how the pixels of one layer blend with underlying layers. I’ll go into the details of blend modes in future tutorials. For now, select a blend mode of Multiply. Multiply is usually the first blend mode I try and does work fine with this file. We’ll also leave the opacity at 100%. Feel free to play around with the other Blend Modes and opacity. Note: a lot of them don’t work very well with a white background.
Set The Blend Mode to Multiply
The image should now look like this:
Texture with Multiply Blend Mode.
Step Four: Applying a Layer Mask
This actually doesn’t look too bad without a layer mask, but let’s go ahead and add one to play around with.
Click on the New Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layer panel and a white box will appear to the right of the texture.
What is a layer mask? A layer mask is a non-destructive way to hide or reveal areas of a layer. Here’s the basic idea of how a layer mask works: wherever we put black, it masks the interaction of the layer, revealing more of the layer below. The opacity of the black will determine how much of the selected layer is masked. Think of painting in black as erasing away part of the selected layer—except that unlike erasing, you can edit the mask at any time (thus it’s non-destructive.)
Click the New Layer Mask Icon
Now that we have a layer mask, we’ll paint away over areas of the flower that we want to reveal more.
- Select the brush tool
- Select a brush that is soft edged (0 hardness) and make it around 200 pixels.
Select a soft edged Brush
To start out, let’s set the opacity of the brush to around 30%
Set the Brush opacity to 30%
Make sure your mask is selected—in the layer panel you should see a second set of lines around the rectangle. See the illustration below. Then, just start painting the center of the flower and you’ll see it brighten. You may want to paint away a little on the petals as well. I think in this case, it looks pretty good having some of the texture showing on the flower. This is what my layer mask looked like.
Layer Mask painted to reveal more flower
Feel free to play around with the layer mask.
- Try a different brush opacity
- Try a different brush size. The shortcut for enlarging your brush is CMD/CNTRL +]to decrease brush size CMD/CNTRL +[
- If you go too far and want to apply less mask, just switch your color to white and paint over those areas of the mask that you want to diminish.
Final Image
Here's what my final image looked like, but feel free to play around. If you got lost or something is confusing, a perfect place to chat is the Facebook page.
Final Image
Get The Downloads
- When you click the link, the download will start downloading into where ever you’ve set your downloads. This is often into a download folder.
- The file name is: FrenchKiss_QuickStart.zip
- File size is: 7.1 MB
- Unzip the file by double clicking on it. Occasionally, zip files can become corrupt during downloads. If you are getting errors, try to download it again. I recommend the free Stuffit Expander for unzipping files.
Boring but essential copyright info. © Leslie Nicole 2010. You are free to use the flower image for personal use, but please do not reproduce it as your own. You may not reproduce it in any form other than personal sharing. The texture is free to use in your personal and commercial work and no link or credit is required (although it’s always appreciated.) You may not share it or resell it as is or claim it to be your own. Enjoy!
Category: Using Textures
About the Author (Author Profile)
American Photographer and Designer living in France with husband, 2 Weimaraners and 3 cats. Camera, Mac, garden. Empress of my Universe.Subscribe
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Sites That Link to this Post
- A Better Way To Resize And Place Your Texture | Photo Artist Textures | September 11, 2010
- Viewing And Editing Layer Masks In Photoshop | Photo Artist Textures | September 21, 2010
Thanks for your brilliant tutorial. I’m learning alot about using textures and having great fun too. My latest effort can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theresae/4982104557/
Thanks for sharing your great tutorial, the only problem I had with it was that Elements 8 doesn’t have a layer mask tab and I couldn’t find it anywhere but otherwise it worked great.
I appreciate that feedback, Michelle. From my understanding of things I’ve read, I know that a lot of people use Elements for textures. Maybe the layer mask function is different? I do have a copy of Elements. When I get a chance, I’ll open it up and try it. Thanks!
Thank you for the interesting sequence of processes. having never drawn anything on the computer, or used it so creatively the project seems daunting. the instructions seem clear. thanks for taking the time to help others learn, grow and enjoy.!!
Hi Helene,
It can be daunting. I threw a lot at you in this post. I wanted people to have an overview. If textures interest you, but this post seems overwhelming, just break it down to one small thing. If you are interested in texture work, just follow the blog and there will be a lot of little tips that will help you break the ideas down.
Leslie,
For Elements Users, there are some free layer masks that can be downloaded into the effects panel. One is from Rita at Coffeeshop.blogspot.com.
thanks for the beautiful texture and tutorial!
charlotte
Leslie, Thank You for the tutorial. It was very helpful, I am just starting to learn how to use layers I find it a lot of fun .
Thank for the comment, Kim. I’m glad you find the tutorial useful.
Leslie, I have Elements 8 and I am trying to learn how to do this, but I have hit a road block and getting rather frustrated. I do fine until I get to step 4: Applying a layer mask. In MY program, I do not have a “new layer mask icon” in my layer panel. I have looked at the adobe photoshop tutorials (which are poorly done, IMO), and all I see is one for “creating a clipping mask” which I tried but apparently is not the same thing? When I tried it and then did the painting part, it did not reveal any of the image below the texture…instead it just painted a black splotch on the whole image. Can you help me figure out what to do?
Judy
Hi Judy,
I understand a lot of people use Elements. I have an older version that came with my Wacom tablet that I tried to load in, but it wouldn’t work. Perhaps I’ll download a trial version to check out. I’m sorry I don’t have a quick answer for you as I don’t know Elements. I’ll work on either learning it or getting someone who knows it to guest post, but it may take a little time for me to get you a response. Thank you for letting me know your frustration and I’ll work on it.
Thank you, Leslie! Finally I can understand and use masks!! I have Serif PhotoPlus X3, which is much like PhotoShop and really enjoy it, but had not been able to understand the instructions on using masks.
I’m very grateful for the gorgeous textures and clear instructions!
Great, Anna! Thanks for your comment and I’m glad that helps.
Leslie, thank you so much for this tutorial. However like a lot of other people I too have an old version of Elements so could not create the layer mask. I have been told that there is a way around this in Elements itself so would love to learn it. I found that using the erazer tool removed the texture but it didn’t remove just a bit of it[your 30%] so it was as if the image had just been placed on top of the texture and was not a subtle effect. I don’t want to make you have to go to more trouble but it would be good on your tutorials if you could say whether they are suitable for Elements users too. Really loving playing with your beautiful textures!
Hi Pauline,
I’m not an Elements user myself, but I recently purchased Elements 9 so I could be more familiar with it. Most of the tutorials would work for Elements as well. I’ve found the big difference between Elements 9 and Photoshop to be in the layer grouping features. I’ll try to start incorporating more info about Elements, but not being an expert in Elements, I’ll only be able to tell you if it works in version 9. I highly recommend that Elements users upgrade to version 9, which does support layer masks. Thanks for your comment!
Oh it is great to know that Elements 9 supports layer masks Leslie! I will look into how much it would cost to upgrade! I might not be able to for a while though but as I am new to learning about Photoshop I really appreciate being able to learn from your tutorials. Thanks so much!
Hi Leslie, I just found your tutorial this evening and am new to Photoshop and am using 7.0 and was able to follow your directions and I am so excited. I’ve been playing around for months now and wasn’t able to do what you just showed me to do, one thing though, lol, I don’t know how to end my project after completing the step with the brush. I feel foolish but if I don’t ask I won’t learn. Thank you so much for your help!
Kim
Hi Kim, glad to know this helped. After you finish with the brush, you’re done with your master file. It’s always good to keep a master file in case you want to come back later to re-work it. That’s the beauty of layers and layer masks. To publish your work – share it, etc., you will want to make a flattened file and depending on your destination save it for web, save as a jpg. etc. To flatten just choose Layer from the menu then Flatten Image. Appreciate your question!
Leslie, Thank you so much for your help. I just posted about using your tutorial on my blog, thanks again! you can read it here: http://flowershopgurl.blogspot.com/2012/01/learning-some-techniques-using.html
Kim
Flowershopgurl recently posted..Learning some techniques using PhotoShop…
Thank you, for the link Luv, Kim! I enjoyed your blog. I’ve been finding a lot of blogs lately on vintage crafts and home decor. I’ve always been a decor fanatic. I’ve always planned on someday starting to do home decor projects as well, so it’s a delight seeing all the blogs and sites out there.
Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU! I can not wait to really explore your site and your educational offerings – I am very excited! I linked my blog post today to your tutorial ( http://dogbreedzphotographyresources.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/feb-3-366-32-saffron-fields/ ). I am very appreciative of your willingness to share your knowledge with the rest of us!!
Peggy/DogBreedz.net recently posted..Project 52-5: Bridges
Thank you, Peggy for that uber-lovely comment and especially for the link luv. xx
Thank you for the lovely textures and your very pretty blog.
Thank you, Rhonda!
For those of you with an older version of Elements, you can get a layer mask by going to Layers, New Adjustment Layer, Levels,click OK and without altering anything on the levels box just click ok and then you will see in your layers panel that you have now got a mask you can work on
Hi Leslie … just wanted to tell you that this is my go-to tutorial for anyone wanting to get into the fun of texture work. Have just linked it to a friend again, today … thank you again!!!!
Lois Bryan recently posted..Dewy Pink Asters by Lois Bryan
Thanks, Lois! I was just mapping out plans for new tutorials today, so more on the way. I appreciate your link luv. xx
Very pretty effect with the golden texture.
Carolyn recently posted..EVENING SKY
Topaz Filters…thanks to you I checked out their site and download one for a free trial. As a beginner in CS6, which filters would you recommend for me. I loaded the simply one to oil paint photos. I was blown away with the filter.
Thanks for your assistance.
Carolyn recently posted..EVENING SKY
Hi Carolyn, it really depends on what you want to do. I bought the entire bundle and really love it. If I were to buy just one filter though, I think it would be “Adjust” because it has a variety of filters. The others are more specialized.
Thank you very much. I’ll go look at ADJUST.
Carolyn recently posted..ELEGANT WHISPERS Etsy Shop