The other day, I was processing some photos and came across the two photos featured in this post. Both shots were taken from my hotel room in Amman Jordan. Shooting through a window is not always a successful endeavor - reflection, refraction, and dirt are among the things you have to deal with. These photos were no exception.
Just as I was about to give up on using the photos, I decided to experiment with apply some textures that made the technical flaws merge into the final product. On one hand, you could say I masked the flaws, but equally true would be the statement that they inspired me and I built upon them. I don’t really care which perspective is taken – I am pleased with the results, particularly the first of the two.
Here is the process:
- Import your photo into Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements)
- Copy another image into a layer that is stacked above the original shot (in the two photos here, I used a water/beach image and a stone image respectively)
- Set the “texture” or top layer to “overlay”
- Adjust the opacity of the texture layer until you get the look you want
- Continue with color/contrast/crop/sharpening corrections (I did so after send the composite image back to Lightroom)
Although pleased with these results, I doubt that I will make this process routine in my approach. On the other hand, when I run across compositions I find attractive yet flawed in some way I cannot reasonably remedy, I have no doubt I will apply this technique again. One thing is for certain, I will now be collecting images to use as textures.
Have fun, and go make some great photography.
Craig
Flickr has some great textures that people are willing to share.
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