Textures

Megan, my SIL, has been doing these weekly photo challenges for a while. Her photography skills have gotten so good! You are supposed to take a picture a day that goes along with the challenge topic of the week. I keep meaning to join in, but my good intentions don't seem to ever come to fruition. When we were down in Zion's the challenge was textures. What a perfect challenge for our trip. I kind of cheated though, all of these textures were taken in the two days we were down there. Here are some of my textures.

Ever since I took the Jessica Sprague photoshop class a month or so ago I've been in love with textures on my photos. I took some pictures on our trip just for this purpose. Here are the steps to putting texture on your pictures and these are some of my favorites I did today.

First you create a new document, then you drag your photo in. Next you drag the texture photo in on top of your picture layer. Then you change the blending mode on the texture layer to whatever you want. I really like Soft Light, but Overlay adds a bit more contrast and gives the picture a little more punch. Lower the opacity to your liking and if there are people in the picture I suggest erasing the texture on their face, any skin that is showing (you don't want them to look like a lizard or something) and maybe lightly erasing it on some of their clothing. And there you have it!

This beautiful rock texture

+ this adorable picture of Aria

= this unbelievable picture. I love the rough texture, which makes it look like an old picture that has been kind of beat up over the years. I also love how her smooth baby skin contrasts with the texture. And the warm glow is fantastic!

The texture of the red rock sandstone in Snow Canyon

+ a picture of Ponte Vecchio in Florence

= this warm and antique looking photo.

For this one I used two textures: One of the bark on a tree

and one of a grassy bush on our hike in Snow Canyon.

+ this desaturated picture of the kids at the pumpkin patch

= this fun and funky picture.

Some more beautiful red sandstone

+ a picture I took of my kids walking in the fall leaves

= this warm and glowing picture. I wish I had known how to use textures last year so I could have this version hanging on my wall.

This texture of a gravel road

+ this picture of the Flat Iron building in New York

= This awesome picture. I used the Hard Light Blending Mode and it ended up looking like a painting by Surat. Such a cool effect, don't you think? What kind of textures can you find in your photos?

Jessica Sprague is the Best!

I just finished up my last photoshop lesson of the two week course I was taking from Jessica Sprague.com. I had so much fun! It gave me a reason to do something creative and learn something new every day. I'm so excited to start playing with my pictures more and experimenting with these new techniques I've learned. I know I've put up a few of the pictures but here they all are in order of how the lessons went.

Lesson 1 - PNG Files

Lesson 2 - Brushes

Lesson 3 - Handtinting (I learned how to handtint in a totally new way!)

Lesson 4 - Clipping Masks

Lesson 5 - Textures

Lesson 6 - TTV

Lesson 8 - Type

Lesson 9 - Edge Burn

Lesson 10 - Various Techniques

Lesson 11 - Recoloring (So much easier than how I first learned to do this.)

Lesson 12 - Storyboards

Lesson 13 - Photo Collages (I learned so many shortcuts in this lesson.)

What a great time I had doing these different lessons! Now I feel like I'm a little more "in the know" when it comes to photoshop. I can't wait to do my next digital family album!

Photoshop Lessons 2 & 3

Day 2 was about using brushes. This was a good little refresher for me. I forgot how much I love using brushes and how easy it is. It is like using stamps in regular scrapbooking. Here are a couple of pictures I did with the brushes included in the class.

Day 3 was about Handtinting and achieving a vintage look. This was new to me. I learned how to handtint photos in photoshop differently than the way she taught today. It was actually really easy and turned out looking great. Here are the before and after pictures of Aria. Isn't her ponytail so cute?!

I wonder what is in store for tomorrow?

Photoshop Lessons

I came across Jessica Sprague's website the other day and found out she was offering a free photoshop class on frames and special effects. I am always up for learning more when it comes to photoshop. The first lesson was today and it was just about adding some frames and word art. I already know how to do this, but it was still fun. It also gave me an excuse to play with some pictures. Here are the results of my day one project.

I can't wait to see what the next two weeks bring!