Layering a texture over an image can make a decent image into something really striking. I love the raw, gritty mood it adds to these two images and will start to tinker with incorporating textures into my people images soon. This would be a perfect match with some fall foliage images for some real crisp, yummy pics. Adding a texture is to an image is simple; create a new layer over your existing image, paste your texture onto that layer and then play around with the opacity and layer type (overlay, soft light, multiply, etc.) to suit the image. Check out Poser for some fantastic examples of using textures in portrait photography. Also, flickr has some fantastic free textures uploaded by its users (located here and here). I’ll be posting some of my own textures soon so stay tuned! Here’s a couple of my creations.
Updated March 6th, 2009. One of the key factors in photographing a texture is to use angled hard light. As you can see, the first texture below was made using a diffused light source creating a very flat looking surface. It’s got a nice gritty look that may work for some images. The second example was taken during mid day when the sun was in full beam and angled at about 45 degrees from the wall. This combination creates those wonderful shadows that really help to make it “pop”. Email me if you would like the larger versions of any of these.
