CREATIVE EFFECTS
O
n the previous pages we explored the Quick
editing mode’s Textures panel. This creative new
tool provides us with a quick way to mix photos
and textures together, but it only has a few
textures to play with. As a result these preset textures are
likely to pop up in lots of people’s work. To make yourtextured images look more unique, capture your own textured
surfaces such as pealing paintwork or crumbling brickwork.
You can then use Photoshop Elements’ Layers panel and its
wide collection of blending modes to creatively combine your
‘found’ textures with photographs of people or places to
enhance them artistically.Combine your photographs with textures more
creatively using layer masks and blending modes
4
Fine-tune the blend
The Overlay blending mode mixes colours and tones
from both layers to give the portrait a distressed look.
You can make the blended effect look more subtle by reducing
the texture layer’s opacity to 27%. Grab the Eraser and paint
over any parts of the texture layer that you want to remove.3
Blend the layers
You can mix the colours and tones of both layers in a
variety of ways using blending modes. Set the texture
layer’s blending mode to Darken to make lighter colours on
the top layer transparent, revealing detail from the layer
below. Lighten makes the texture blend with the dark colours.2
Enlarge the texture
When viewing the texture file, choose Select>All
and then Edit>Copy. Go to the portrait and choose
Edit>Paste. This adds the texture to a new layer. Click the
Move tool, tick the Show Bounding Box option, and drag the
texture’s control handles to increase its size. Click the tick.1
Open the source images
Open ty_elements15.jpg and ty_elements30.jpg. The
shot of pealing paint has a lower resolution than our
high-quality studio shot, so we’ll need to enlarge it later.
Click the Rotate icon to make the texture file match the
studio shot’s portrait orientation.