Update 2019 - Simple texture use tutorial

Hello,
I am back with a very simple tutorial for all you beginners just starting to work with textures.

I chose a portrait of a horse to make some essentials clear.

1st -  its best to take a photo, that has some negative space around your subject, in this case the snowy and misty background. This brings out the quality of the texture and you also avoid the texture spoiling the images's own texture.

2nd - chose one or two textures that complement the colours of your image and that have a rather fine structure. Otherwise it might easily overpower the soft background.

3rd - if you are not satisfied with your choice keep trying other textures and settings! E.g. go through different blend modes & shift the position of your textures.

Before and after comparison - please move your mouse over the image

As you can see I have chosen two textures from my Vintage Film & Photography Pack

Here's a closer look at the two textures:

Baltic Sands

Eagle Eye

As usual, here's also a screenshot of the layers in PS to make things clear:

Layers Horse

The first layer "Baltic Sands" characterises the image, adding a photo border as well as a vignette giving the whole photo a vintage look.

"Eagle Eye" was chosen because of its red/orange tones that are a perfect addition to the horse's fur color. I had to add a layer mask to prevent the darker parts of the horse to become unrecognisably dark. As you can see I erased parts of the texture covering the horse this way using a soft round brush a low opacity.

Do you have any questions?

Please drop me a line, I will try to help!

Dirk