I thought I’d start a new series of posts on how to tweak your textures. I know many of you are already quite savvy about this, but you may pick up a way to use a texture that you hadn’t thought of before.

Technically in this little tut, I’m tweaking a digital paper, but it’s basically a texture and can be used as either a digital paper or a texture. This tan vintage paper texture used in the background has become one of my favorite digital papers!

Texture Tweak

I’ve used a texture/digital paper from the Love Ya Texture collection. The original texture is a vintage-pink color.

Note: if I was doing this texture color changes within my image file, I would use clipping masks. This is such a handy color, I recommend saving a copy of the pink colored texture as a permanent version.

First I added added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

• Hue: 34
• Saturation: 19. Tip: you will often find you need to decrease the saturation when making color adjustments.
• Lightness: 0. Tip: I rarely ever use the Lightness slider. I prefer to add a Levels or Curve adjustment layer. You’ll have better control over the contrast.

Next, I added a Levels adjustment layer to increase the contrast and darken the texture.

• The shadows are controlled by the left arrow point on the histogram. Sliding this to the right will deepen the shadows. I chose 96.
• The highlights are controlled by the right arrow point on the histogram. Sliding it to the left will brighten the highlights. I slightly brightened this with a setting of 252. I left the mid-tones as they were.

Image Processing Notes

The floral was photographed with a Canon 7D, Canon 60mm macro lens. ISO 100, f.6.3 at 1/10 sec. I used a tripod and shot down on a table top. Natural skylight.

Before and After filters and a texture.

Filters

I used Topaz Labs Clarity filter with the Macro, Flower I setting and then also selectively added (with a layer mask) additional processing with Nik Color Efex Pro 4 filter with the Detail Extraction setting.

Texture

I also added the texture, Tempest from the Les Textures 3 collection. Blend Mode: Overlay, Opacity: 100% with a layer mask taking most of the texture off the flower areas. The result was a bit more aging on the vintage paper that the flowers are resting on.

Frame

The frame is from the Memories Frame Set and I also used a tape strip from Tape Strips No. 1.

* Topaz Labs is an affiliate link. I get a small commission from any sales resulting from a click from this site (at no extra cost to you.) I really do love these filters. Nearly all of my own images use one of these filters. Thank you for supporting the site!

Leslie Nicole

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