Flower Photos: Textural Creations

by Terry Holdren

I have been asked in by the iPhotography tutors if I would give you a guide to how I take my textured flowers photos. So here I go…

Taking the Flower Photos

Normally I take my initial flower photos with using my 100mm macro lens.

Usually handheld, but at times, especially if I have extension tubes, on I will use my tripod.

When I select what flowers to photograph, I do my best to find flowers without any blemishes, if possible.

I will normally take my photos in the shade or use a diffuser as I don’t want any shadows on them.

Copyright Terry Holdren 2020 iPhotography Textured flower photos 4

Why I Get My Texture Files

The textures I use on my floral images I had to purchase. There are several places online you can find texture files for free, but sometimes the quality isn’t the same as the premium ones. Previously I have bought from Kathleen Clemons Textures and Leslie Nicole Textures.

Editing in the Texture File

I edit my photos in Lightroom, making any adjustments as needed. I then will take it over to Photoshop by right-clicking on the picture and pressing EDIT IN > PHOTOSHOP.

Once in Photoshop, with my flower photo selected I will then choose the texture file I want to place over it.

Under FILE, select PLACE EMBEDDED then select your texture. The texture file will then appear over your photo. You want to make sure all edges cover the photo before you press ENTER.

By doing this you will see you have added a layer to your original photo.

Copyright Terry Holdren 2020 iPhotography Textured flower photos 5

Now this is where your creativity needs to come in to play. You will need to choose the right blending mode, which is a dropdown in the layers panel. There are several to choose from depending on the look you want. I normally select either NORMAL, MULTIPLY, SOFT LIGHT or OVERLAY.

Next, I adjust the opacity slider to control the strength and transparency of the texture layer.

Creating the Texture Effect

First you need to add a layer mask to the top layer. Look at the layers palette and click the top layer to make sure it’s selected. Then click the third icon along the bottom to add a white layer thumbnail to the texture layer.

Secondly, go to your photo and select the BRUSH TOOL. You want to make sure the colour palette is set to black and white.

Tip – Ensure the foreground colour is black, this will mask the texture.

I almost always use a soft edged brush. You can change the hardness of the brush by right clicking when using and reducing the hardness slider. I tend to start at 75% for the main portion of the flower I want to show through the texture.

Then I just adjusting down 50% to 30% as I get to the edges of the flower. Make sure when brushing to use small strokes and stop often. This way if you need to undo parts, you are only having to do small parts.

Flower Photos – Summary

Finally, once you have the photo as you like, select the drop down menu from the Layers panel and press FLATTEN ALL LAYERS – then save. Couldn’t be much easier!

Copyright Terry Holdren 2020 iPhotography Textured flower photos 2

Copyright Terry Holdren 2020 iPhotography Textured flower photos 1

Copyright Terry Holdren 2020 iPhotography Textured flower photos 3

iPhotography Tutors Say…

“Thank you so much to Terry for this brilliant tutorial. If Terry has inspired you to get a little more creative with your flower photos then let us know and share your photos in the iPhotography gallery.”

If you would like to share your photography experiences, then why not consider writing a photo guide like Terry? Use our dedicated ‘Write for Us’ page to get started.

What Others Are Reading

iPhotography Course not only teaches you all the standard technical expertise, settings, skills, and special effects with your camera – but we also show you how to use these skills to develop your own individual style as a photographer.