Walnut

A Few tips for placing and resizing textures using the transform tool in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. The text below follows the video pretty closely.

Placing The Texture

I like to use tabbed windows in Photoshop and drag the texture into my image file. (You can also use the copy and paste method.)

  • Be sure the Move Tool is selected. (V is the keyboard shortcut.)
  • If you already have several layers in your target image file, it will be most convenient if you select the layer in your target document that would be below where you want your texture to go.
  • Select the layers you want to move. With a texture file, this will just be the background layer. (Just an FYI, you can select several layers using either the Shift key for contiguous layers or the Command / Control key for non-contiguous layers.)
  • Click and hold your mouse and drag from your texture document to your image document. Make sure you see the faint outline of the layer in your target document before you release the mouse.
  • Hold down the Shift key as you drag to center the texture placement into your image file.

Resizing The Texture

  • If your texture is larger than your image, it can be useful to change the blend mode to Multiply so you can see the results as you resize. (You can change the blend mode afterwards to suit your image.)
  • To fit the texture exactly to your image dimensions, from the View menu choose / Snap To / Document Bounds.
  • Activate the Transform tool by hitting Command (mac) or Control (pc) + T on the keyboard.
  • If the texture is so large that you can’t see the Transform bounding box, hit Command (mac) or Control (pc) + 0 (zero) key to fit to screen.
  • Hold down the Option (mac) or Alt (pc) to resize from the center.
  • If you wish to constrain the proportions of the texture, also hold down the Shift key as you resize. Resize from the corner handles, not the side ones. It’s not usually necessary to keep proportions the same with a texture unless there is writing or a pattern/design that would become distorted.
  • If you need to rotate, holding down shift will snap to the nearest whole degree. This is useful if you are rotating 90% for example.
  • For an alternate method of resizing your texture to fit your image before you place it, see this tutorial.

Command/Control + 0 will zoom out to fit the Transform bounding box on an oversized texture to fit the screen.

Resource

The texture used in this image is Paysage from the Tableaux Collection.

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.