How’d You Do That? :: Textures on Portraits

I did a quick and dirty texture post last week, and it covers the basic BASIC ways to use textures. But if you want to use them on portraits, there are a few additional steps you want to keep in mind so the texture doesn’t go over the skin and look weird.

No doubt, there are times when textures look fine over skin, but I personally prefer to erase the texture over the skin.

For the sake of time and space, I’ll go through the first few steps w/o screenshots, because they are the same as in the original texture post.

I’m going to start with this image …

This one is special to me because she is running to see her daddy who just got home from work. And I *adore* the light. While it was shot using a wide open aperture, the house in the background is still not obscured enough for me, so I’m going to use a texture to really bring her out of the background.

1. download picture & process as desired (I do all of this in Lightroom)

2. import picture into Photoshop (I use Elements 5.0)

3. import texture, re-size and drag it over the image

4. choose blending mode of your choice (I almost always use either overlay or soft light)

5. change opacity to whatever you desire

I used Florabella Textures – Reverie b&w in Overlay mode @ 100% opacity

Now is when it becomes a little different for portraits. As you can see above, the texture makes Emma’s dress and pants look a little dirty, so I want to erase the texture over her.

There are various ways of doing this, including using the magnetic lasso tool to go around the subject and then erasing the texture that way. But I am really bad at using the lasso tool (shaky hand syndrome, lol), so I just erase freehand.

6. while you have the texture layer selected (it is very important that you have only the texture layer selected!), then select your eraser

7. make sure that you have the soft mechanical brush selected – the hard brush will leave a very obvious mark where you erase whereas the soft brush will make your erasing blend in

side note: you can use whatever size eraser brush that works best for the photo that you are working on – if you need to adjust the size as you are working, the “{“ and “}” keys make it smaller or larger (I just learned this shortcut a while ago and use it CONSTANTLY!)

8. change the opacity of the eraser to suit your needs – for this image, I used 88% but I normally use around 30% and go back over it where needed. depending on the photo and the texture, if you use 100% opacity to erase the texture, it may look a little weird. just play around with that until you find what works for you.

9. then, start erasing over the part that you do not want texturized! again, make sure you only have the texture layer selected – you are erasing the texture, NOT the image!

10. once you are satisfied with it, flatten the image and save it out. or add another texture, if you so desire. and then pat yourself on the back – you’re done!

A couple of points …

a. once you have erased over the part of the photo you don’t want texturized, keep the texture layer selected and then play around with the blending modes – it’s fun to see the different things you can do with whatever textured area remains!

b. I almost always use black and white textures for my portraits because they don’t change the overall color tone of the image, and then I use the fun colored ones for my landscapes or other images. If you find a texture that you would love to use for a portrait, but it’s green or brown or some other color that just doesn’t work for the image, convert the texture to black and white first. You’ll still have the awesome texture, but it won’t mess with the color of your photo.

c. obviously, this technique isn’t reserved for portraits only – I’ve used this technique for a coffee cup, a flower, etc. the sole purpose of this technique is to add a texture without covering the subject matter.

Please post a comment here or email me if you have any questions. I don’t consider myself a texture guru or anything, so please feel free to add a comment with your suggestions or tips or tricks.

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