I have no special secrets in applying textures. To blend it good with the rest of the picture and to make it interesting, you need to consider following points:
- Try to use different blending modes. Every texture is different which means that it needs different blending mode. My favorite are Screen and Soft Ligh, but I always try all of them to see what´s really the best. You should try it too.
- According to my experiences the texture looks usually better if you lower its opacity. Normaly I set it on 15 - 35%. The effect is not so harsh thanks to it. But there are excepions of course.
- I usually use desaturated versions of textures because I just want to add details and not to change colors.
- You can get really interesting results by combining more textures.
- It´s decent but still creates nice grunge effect.
- By using still the same texture my photos looks similar to each other, which helps with building my "style".
Most of the time I use it with blending mode set on Soft Light and Opacity on about 20% and desaturate it so it´s not affecting colors. Sometimes I let it visible only arround the edges because it creates interesting vignette.
Let´s take a look at few examples of photos with and without the texture.
Conclusion
I really hope that this article helps you or give you some idea how you can work with textures. Using textures is a great way how you can add more "personal" feeling to your pictures but you need to be gentle to not to "over texture" your image.For the next "Readers Ask" type of articles I´m preparing Channels and how you can work with them.
Do you have any other questions? Let me know and if it will be in my powers I will answer them :)
Have a beautiful day
- Jarka