I like to give you a lot of options with textures, so I usually provide them with lots of detail and color. Remember though that they don’t have to be used that way. There are several ways you can tame wild textures to give subtle effects.

Crop, Combine, Adjust, Mask

When there is a lot of edge attitude in a texture, crop out the edging. You could also combine a wilder texture with a subtle texture and lower the opacity to tone down the effect.

Here’s a quick example of using the texture, Dawning from the Solstice collection that is pretty exuberant! Now, this may work perfectly for your project, then again, you might think, Ack! (Note: the Solstice collection is temporarily unavailable while I work on updates.)

Solstice fine art texture

This texture placed as is is rather intense!

 

Below, the same texture is enlarged to eliminate the rough borders, the opacity is lowered and it’s combined with a more subtle white painterly texture from the Tableaux collection.

Image using a fine art texture

The same texture cropped, and combined with another texture.

 

You can go even more subtle by masking out more of the “wild” texture to reveal the more neutral texture.

taming wild textures

Here, the wilder texture is masked more to reveal the more neutral 2nd texture.

Blur The Texture

Many of my artist friends blur textures so they get the color of the texture with just a hint of texture. This can be done with a simple Gaussian blur in Photoshop or another 3rd party filter.

Convert To Grayscale or Monochrome

Grayscale

If you want the texture, but not the color, then convert the texture to grayscale. I recommend increasing the contrast quite a bit and then using the texture with a blend mode of Overlay or Soft Light. See this post on How To Use the Texture Without The Color.

The original texture from the Artiste Collection was very colorful. The final photograph did not use the color.

Color texture used without the color.

This colorful texture was converted to grayscale for the final result shown right.

Convert texture to black and white.

Texture converted to black and white.

Monochromatic

Another option is to add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and check the option to “Colorize” the texture. Play with the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders to get the color wished. you can see how using a sepia colored texture gives a warmer version of the landscape. (Note: I could also have used a Sepia Adjustment layer.)

Making a texture monochromatic.

Colorize the texture with hue/saturation.

Colorize the texture with hue/saturation.

Final Word

Remember, those “wild” textures offer versatile opportunities to add lovely, custom, visual interest to your image.

Resources

Tableaux texture collection

Leslie Nicole
Leslie Nicole

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