Why I Like Using Texture in Photoshop

© 2007 Wazari Wazir | Photograph and Texture | When I Was Starting Playing With Texture

© 2009 Wazari Wazir | Photograph and Texture | My Texture Style Now

A lot of peoples get confuse about texture, some of them think texture is a photoshop action, preset or plug in. The truth is, texture is an image, just like normal photograph but there is no picture in it, like people or landscape, it’s just a picture of a texture, for an example a picture of a rustic walls or decay object or simply a texture of old papers without any picture in it, just an empty space with texture or worn out piece of a paper that have been exposed to all kind of weather for quite sometime. You can get texture anywhere, you can even buy it online if you have the money or you can’t find the suitable texture but it was so easy to find texture in the old building, look for rustic walls, doors, anything that have “texture”.

I’ve been using texture for my photoshop editing since 2007, so it’s been two years already. Above picture is among my first attempt using texture, compared to the below picture where I reedit the same picture with texture but with just a subtle touch, you can hardly see the texture compared with the above picture. Back then in 2007, I don’t know how to play with layer mask, I don’t know how to play with “tones of colors”. All I know is get the texture and blend it with my picture with “soft light” and it was done. Back then I don’t know how to play well with the opacity to lower the contrast of a texture, looking back at my picture above, I think I should lower the texture opacity a bit, so it doesn’t feels or look so rough but I need to start somewhere and over the time I manage to play well with texture.

The reason why I like to play with texture is I like to try new things and I admit it I’ve got a lot of inspiration from flickr especially from western countries where they have been playing with texture for quite sometime. Back then in 2007 I found it very hard to get inspiration about texture from local photographers here in Malaysia who are passionate enough using texture, maybe they are some good one out there, it’s just that I’ve never found them but now I can see a lot of photographers here in Malaysia using them, some of them also using it in their wedding pictures. I think nowadays people start to value artistic work and it is artistic work that set the photographers apart.

Talking about texture, it is not suitable for all kind of pictures, just because we get the texture and know how to blend it well with a photograph doesn’t mean that every picture will turn out to look great with texture. We should know the nature of a texture, especially if you want to get “old school” or “vintage” kind of a feeling, you must find the right photograph to do it. Look for photograph that have timeless feeling, a photograph of a person in front of an old building with a traditional clothes for an example. The right clothes also play an important roles for texture editing, modern fashionable clothes doesn’t work well with texture editing, it will look weird or strange.

The tips is to get a photograph with a “Timeless Feeling” and experiment it with texture. I don’t know how to describe a “Timeless Photograph”, but I hope you can understand that. For an example of a timeless photograph, imagine a person wearing a worn out T-shirt and jeans holding a classic guitar at their back, walking along the abandon railway track bath in the golden light. Try that with texture, I’m sure it will enhance the mood of that picture, add more depth and drama to it. Ever wonder why some movie film like to use a broken rolls of film kind of effect?

About the editing, usually I will start to lower the contrast of the original picture before I put texture on top of it, usually vintage or old school kind of a picture doesn’t have much colors, the colors have been worn out, so try to lower the saturation a bit, and then only put texture on top of it. “Soft Light” is my favorite blending option, usually I start from there and if I think the texture is a bit strong, I will lower the opacity of the texture, after that flatten the picture and try to play with color tones to put some more impact to the photograph, about the tones, you can get my eBook on photoshop tone if you want to study it further.