Thank you for downloading Jupiter and Mars, two textures

belonging to Elena T. Photography’s free Unconventional Macrocosms set.

F.A.Q. and Other Information

Ok, so, I downloaded the textures and they look like very strange

pictures. What am I supposed to do with them?!

First of all, thank you very much for downloading the textures and for reading this.

As much as textures look strange, they are also very useful if you wish to give your

pictures a nice artsy, “canvas-like” feel.

Here below you can see two before/afters, as well as a detailed (but very easy-to-

follow) tutorial that will allow you to start using your textures right after you’re

finished reading this little document.

Texture used: Jupiter Texture used: Mars

For this tutorial I have used PSE (PhotoShop Elements), but the instructions are very

similar for PhotoShop and GIMP as well. All screenshots will be available in the

Tutorials Screenshots folder – you can view them larger simply by clicking the “View

Larger” links I will place right below each picture.

I will edit the photo of the rose I posted above with “Jupiter” instead of “Mars”, so that

you can see how different textures give different results on the same picture.

It goes without saying that the same texture on different photos will also give

different results!

1. First of all, open a texture of your choice and the photo you want to add it to in

your program. You will see something like this:

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2. Now, we want to place the texture right on our image. There are two ways to

achieve this: you can either use the Move Tool (see below which one it is) and,

holding your mouse, drag the texture right onto your picture (that is, onto the

tab with your picture’s name) and, when your photo appears, release your

mouse

Move Tool Rectangular Marquee Tool

or, more easily, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (see above) to select the

texture and choose Edit Copy from the menu. Then go to your picture’s tab

and select Edit Paste. The texture will appear right on the picture, but you’ll

be able to see the two layers in the “Layers” window on the right, the

“Background” layer being your photograph and “Layer 1” being the texture.

Either using the Move Tool or the Copy/Paste function will lead you here.

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3. Make sure you see the “Layers” window. If you don’t, select Window Layers

from your menu.

How to make the Layers window appear if you can’t see it anywhere

Now, from the “Layers” window, make sure “Layer 1” (the texture) is selected,

and click the arrow right next to “Normal” to make a menu appear, from which

you will be able to choose the blending mode of your texture.

I suggest you use Overlay, or Soft Light for a more subtle effect. Of course you

can also experiment with the other blending options – since I don’t know what

kind of pictures you are using, I’m suggesting the two effects I know will give

good results on almost any photo.

The blending mode selection

You’ll get something like this, which may already be good, depending on the

kind of work you were interested in creating. Supposing you want to reduce the

visibility of the effect and make it much more subtle, just go on reading!

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4. We now want to reduce the impact the overlaying texture has on our original

photograph: to do so, we simply adjust the Opacity. Always make sure “Layer

1” (the layer with the texture) is selected.

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Again, some of you will now be satisfied, others may want to remove the

texture from certain parts of the picture, for instance a face, or the main

subject of the photograph.

There are several ways to achieve this; I’ll show you the method I prefer, which

also happens to be the easiest one.

5. What I do is going back to my original texture (which was still open; if you

closed it, simply re-open it) and, with the Eyedropper Tool, select a mid-range

color on the texture, one that is not too dark nor too light. I normally choose

quite light colors; in this case, I picked a beige. My suggestion is to try different

colors to find out which one works best on that specific picture.

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When you are done choosing your color, go back to your texturized photograph

and, using the Brush Tool set to proper shape and size (this really depends on

how big the parts you want to remove the texture from are), paint over your

picture (as usual, make sure “Layer 1” is selected in the “Layers” window) in

order to remove the texture from it.

If the brush you selected is too small, simply adjust its size so that it takes only

a few seconds to remove the texture from faces or large parts of the image.

Reduce the size of your brush to clean borders and details, if needed.

For this tutorial I’m trying to keep things simple, but just so you know, you can

set opacity and choose a blending mode for brushes as well. Once again,

there’s nothing like experimenting! Trying different options will be a lot of fun,

trust me!

But now, back to our tutorial, here is a screenshot that shows you where the

Brush Tool is and how many settings can be chosen. If you are new to textures,

I recommend you pick a brush from the default ones and adjust only the size,

leaving the blending mode to “Normal” and the opacity to 100%.

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6. When you are done painting with the brush, you will be finished. In the “Layer”

window, you’ll notice where you painted with your brush. If you have Elements

like me, to see the Before/After you simply deselect “Layer 1” (remove the eye

from it, as you can see below):

If I click the eye on the left of “Layer 1”, it disappears.

What will show then in your program is the original picture (the “Background”).

Remember to select “Layer 1” again (clicking so that the eye comes back)

before you save your picture. The last thing you will want to do is flatten the

picture, so that the two layers will merge into one picture (which you can save

as a .jpeg, .png… as you normally do).

To do so, simply choose Layer Flatten Image from the menu.

Now the picture is ready to be saved… and shared!

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I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!!! Please feel free to share your results on my

Facebook page, I would love to see your creations!

It would also be much appreciated if you could share this link, so that others can

come and grab a copy of my textures.

THANK YOU!!!

What are the T.O.U. (Terms of Use) of these textures?

Elena T. Photography’s Unconventional Macrocosms textures can be freely used for

both personal and commercial projects.

Links to my page or mentions, though not mandatory in any way, are highly

appreciated.

What you cannot do with these textures is:

Claim them as your own

Edit and redistribute them in any way (if you wish to create a freebie using

them, please contact me first)

Sell them

If you have any doubts about the Terms of Use, please drop me an e-mail!

For any questions regarding the textures usage, kindly write a post on my Facebook

Page, so that the answer can be helpful to other people as well. Thank you!

I have enjoyed playing with your textures. Are there some more?

What textures do you usually play with in your photographs? Do

you recommend some?

First of all, I’m really happy you enjoyed playing with my textures. If there’s interest

in them and I’m inspired, I’ll maybe add some more textures to the Unconventional

Macrocosms set, probably as many as the planets that are currently missing ;)

If you are interested, don’t forget to show your appreciation and write your feedback!

I’m a fan of soft editing, yet I love experimenting with my creativity – so I love both

textures and actions.

My favorite creative tools are Isabelle Lafrance’s and Jessica Drossin’s – both Isabelle

and Jessica offer lovely freebies and very beautiful texture packs on their websites.

I suggest you contact them if you are interested in trying their resources and want to

find the perfect products to suit your photography style and/or client’s needs.