Adding textures to an image in post processing adds interest, atmosphere, and personality. And textures can be found anywhere that can be photographed, then adapted for brightness, color, and sharpness as desired to complement an image.
Our dog Shadow takes on an intimidating persona when wearing a hoodie and placed in front of a gritty, street texture.
Here are a few texture images that we created – we are always looking for more!
Handmade National Geographic Textures
My favorite way to create a new texture – one that no one else can duplicate, is to melt National Geographic magazines. National Geographic prints their pages on a special clay-coated paper. When exposed to the biodegradable cleaning solvent called Citrisolv, the inks dissolve and start to blend together in unusual patterns.
Sprinkle some of the Citrisolv liquid on the pages that have color ink. Be sure to use Concentrated Citrisolv. Close up the magazine and let it “cook” for about twenty minutes. Then rip out the pages and place them on aa relatively flat surface to dry. I do this outside on a sunny day.
A sampling of some of the melted national Geographic texture pages:
A few examples of images before and after the texture has been added:
There are quite a few YouTube videos that explain the process in more detail.
So give it a try! And create a look that is completely unique.