Photoshop Friday: Textures

I've gotten a few emails about textures so that's today's tutorial. Well, not a tutorial--more like "this is how I cheat and do it, which is probably wrong"

I tried all kinds on online photo tutorials on how to insert textures. They're great and all, but it kind of takes some time and more often than not, I forget halfway through it how to finish.

Until I found this freebie! It's from Nicole V (who's pretty soaked in awesomeness) Select and download the "Texture File and Action Set" (which works in Adobe Photoshop 7 or higher)

If you don't know how to load an action, look right here.

Then you need some textures. I think textures are personal taste, but I found tons of free ones. Some I use often are here (free!) but you can Google "free photoshop texture" and get tons. (note: did I say "tons" enough times? Sheesh)

Make sure you have both the photo you want to apply the texture to and the actual texture open in Photoshop. I used one of Kate in the backyard. Since there was so much wall in the picture, I want it to have more OOMPH! (I don't know if you can understand all these technical terms again. "OOMPH!")

Then you really just press play and do what the action tell you. Seriously, it's easy. You can totally do it. I used this specific texture.

Here's my before and after.

If you guys have questions about this (or what the actual definition of "OOMPH") let me know! Don't be afraid of texture--you can stick them everywhere! See?

Closet Cleanout

So I'm going through this massive eBay stage. You know when you want to get rid of EVERYTHING? But I'm quickly getting jaded with the eBaying (somehow I charge too little and end up paying people to take my junk)

I'm spreading a little of the eBay love to the blog. Go here and check out the stuff I'm giving away to my faithful blog readers (you know, both of you) or you randomly lurking people.

Here's the rules:

Be the FIRST to comment on the post that you want and you get it. All you have to do is pay shipping (because I'm nice, but I'm not that nice) At the end of my closet clean out, I'm going to ship them all out. I'm thinking in about two weeks.

I'm just going to be randomly posting so LOOK OUT! Baby, kids, maternity, ladies, men...it's all gotta GO! (got a little used-car salesman for that one)

The Weekend In Pictures

So basically, we got a Wii, took a bath, laughed and got dirty all over again. Perfect.

The One Where I Get Overly Sentimental About Shoes

Oh internets, I'm a shoe hog. I'm trying to list these baby shoes of Kate's and Colin's on eBay and now. i. don't. want. to. I think the winning bidder would have to send me an itemized list of why they deserve these fabulous shoes and a slice of Kate's and Colin's babyhood.

So, at the risk of Blake killing me, I'm NOT selling these on eBay. I'm going to hoard them away and then take them out when my babies tell me they're moving away/engaged/need bail money.

Tell me you have shoes hidden away too.

(My photoshoppers--did you know about TEXTURES? Just figured them out and love them. Maybe a little too much.)

Summer

Has your summer gone by as fast as mine? Colin starts school in a week and a half. We commemorated with ice cream sandwiches.

Photoshop Fri...er, Thursday.

(Reminder: We're not going to talk about disappearing blog posts, because then I will cry)

Have you ever had a photo you love, nice lighting, nice colors - but then the photo is just slightly blurry?? It happens to me a lot. This is a quick, super easy method of sharpening (and saving) that photo. We'll be using a high pass filter. Have you used one before?? Well, you will now! I'm using CS3, but I'm sure this will work equally well in Elements.

Another random shot of Kate:

You can see it's out of focus. Let's see what we can do to save that. And doesn't she look so interested in this process?

Open your photo in Photoshop. Usually you save sharpening until your last step in Photoshop, so do whatever else you want to do to the photograph first. Me, I'm lazy so I'll do.....um.....nothing.

Now after your fussing around you need to create a duplicate layer of your image. Click Ctrl+J or go to Layer ---> Duplicate Layer.

Now we want to turn that layer you just made in black and white. Go to Image --> Adjustments --> Desaturate (or hit Shift+Ctrl+U)

Good job!

That last screen shot? Kind of unnecessary, but I was in the groove.

Here's where we're going to sharpen using a High Pass filter. It looks a little freaky, but have faith! Okay, go to Filter --> Other --> High Pass. A screen will pop up, and your image will turn kinda greyish and lineish (these are, of course, highly technical terms) In this little screen, enter a value of 10 in the box beside the word "radius". Click OK.

(okay, so I went a little higher than 10. Mine was like 15.8. I did mine a little higher so you could see the difference. Plus, if it's too much you can always lower the opacity of that duplicate layer you made. I love myself some duplicate layers)

Now we've got to make this freaky photo look normal again. We're going to change the blending mode of the grey highpass layer (the grayish/lineish one) from normal to "soft light" over on your layer's palette. Click on the downward facing arrow beside the word "normal" and click on "soft light".

Ta da!

Okay, so it's a little hard to see on here (and I picked a pretty out of focus picture to begin with) but sometimes it's enough to help your picture out. Here they are side by side:

OH MY GOSH!

You guys, my blog is GONE! GONE!

I tried to update and everything is GONE! Excuse me while I go cuss. Violently.

Update: So all the posts are gone from Blogger, but wonderful Amanda emailed me most of the posts from her Google Reader. Hurrah! Thanks Amanda! Quick, everyone go back up your files NOW!

Hockey: Colin & Kate Style

The competitors

The moves

The results