Texture

Texture for flower and fine art, Canon 5D Markii, Lensbaby double glass optic at f4, 1/2500sec, ISO200

Using texture is a big trend in post production, depending of what you want to achieve, vintage look, adding mood, fine art, it’s all depend of what you want to communicate.

Texture to add mood and grunge, Canon 5D Markii, Canon 24-105 at 24mm, f8, 1/800sec, ISO200

Texture to add mood and grunge, Canon Rebel Xsi Infra Red, Canon 24-105 at 105mm, f8, 1/80sec, ISO200

 This one is a composite of many images, adding texture to add mood.

Canon 5D Markii, Lensbaby pinhole optik, using Chinese Paper Texture onOne Perfect Effect software

Another composite image, adding texture to add softness to the mood, and to isolate the subject.

First of all you need to get the textures, most program, like onOne already have textures, I also shoot my own, get free one on line and buy from texture provider like Florabella and Flypaper, I also use a texture plug in for Photoshop “Totally Rad” Dirty Pictures, the plug in comes with 21 textures, and it is easy to add to it, I added my favorite textures from Florabella and Flypaper without any problem, I am not sure how many textures that can be input to the program, but right now I probably have around 200 that's quite enough for my needs, I am also using onOne program, they add bonus texture all the time, and it's very easy to use, probably one of the best program on the market that is a plug in and also a stand alone.

Using texture with portrait, to add color uniformity to the scene, Canon 5D Markii, Canon 24-105 at 105mm, f4, 1/125 sec, ISO200

Adding texture to isolate the subject,  Canon 5D Markii, Canon 70-200 at 200mm, f11, 1/25sec, ISO200

Adding bokeh texture to add mood, and isolate the subject, Canon 5D Markiii, Canon 85mm Prime Lens, f1.8, 1/500sec, ISO200

  Texture to add story, and drama, Canon 5D Markii, Canon 24-105 at 40mm, f4, 1/15sec, ISO200

Composite image, using many layers of textures and paint brush, to create a story

To use texture without plug ins, follow this link, http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-use-textures-to-enhance-your-photographs/.

For me there is no good or bad method on applying textures, the only thing that is important is to get the effect or mood that I am looking for, that why I writing this post, to show you different subject and different result using all kind of textures. 

Texture to add contrast and isolate the subject, Canon 5D Markii, Lensbaby double glass optic, f5.6, 1/80sec, ISO200

Texture to add texture, contrast and isolate the subject, Canon 5D Markii, Lensbaby double glass optic, f2.8, 1/320sec, ISO200

 Using texture for vintage, I used onOne perfect BW preset 19th Century Process daguerreotype hand color,  Canon 5D Markii, Canon 50mm prime lens, f9, 1/250sec, ISO200

 Vintage texture using Alien Skin Exposure 5, Canon 5D Markii, Canon 24-105 at 105mm, f10, 1/200sec, ISO200

Texture for painterly, effect Canon 5D Markii, Canon 24-105 at 65mm, f10, 1/80sec, ISO200

Texture for graphic imagery,  Canon Rebel Xsi, Canon17-55 at 55mm, f10, 1/125sec, ISO200

Composite image, adding texture for contrast and to isolate subject

 

Adding texture to change the color for a vintage look, landing in Vancouver, Canon 5D Markii, Canon 50mm prime lens, f11, 1/320sec, ISO320

 

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Black and White Filters

I use black and white filters all the time, I like the flexibility, and all the options.

The 4 programs that I used the most are onOne Perfect BW 8, Photoshop Plug In and Standalone, Nik Silver Effex 2, Photoshop Plug In, Alien exposure 5, Photoshop Plug In, and Topaz BW effect 2, Photoshop Plug In, they all offer a lot of flexibility, all of them have free trial, try one at the time, play with it, see if that respond to your needs, you can also try Film Noir, a Standalone Program just got it, very interesting program.

I took these 2 shots during a trip to Louisville Kentucky, these girls where promoting the day of the little black dress Oct. 19, never heard of it before, but apparently it’s to celebrate Coco Chanel introduction of the little black dress 85 years ago, quite interesting, now on I will wear my little black dress every year on that date.

I found these 2 street shots interesting, I am using black and white to change the mood of each image, have a look, and if you have any questions about the programs, use the comment section.

For all the black and white transformation, I only click on the preset, didn't play with it, except for my custom one, I normally play with each options a lot but for this post I didn't want to change the look of the presets I used, the only thing I took out was the frame, when it came with the preset and reduce the grain effect.



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This is the original, Canon 5D Markii, Canon 50mm prime lens, f6.3, 1/125 ISO200

 

I used Alien Skin Kodak Tech Pan Preset

I used onOne Holliwood Portrait Latte Preset

I used Nik High Structure Preset

This one is very different, Topaz as a lot of different filters, this one is Cyan and Pink,

This one is my custom transformation, using Nik, starting with Pinhole Preset, changing the film for Agfa APX 400, Toning Sepia 20, lowering contrast, and protecting the shadow, I also used a control point to add a bit a of brightness on the face of the girls in the corners. This custom one was done to send the attention to the 3 girls in the middle, and their interaction.

This one was kind of fun, I like the different expressions, serious, laughing, and dreaming, Canon 5D Markii, Canon 50mm prime lens, f11, 1/20, ISO 200

I used Topaz White Chocolate Preset

I used Nik High Structure Preset

 I used Alien Skin Low Contrast Kodak x 400 Preset

I like this one a lot, I used Onone Grade 5 Preset

As you can see, the options are huge, just depend of what you are looking for,

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