Would you believe me if I said my texture’s about to get medieval on ya? Well it did! Read on to find out how…

In 2010, when I started my photography certification program at UCSD, my first assignment was to photograph “home”. I decided to include some photos of my church, where I volunteer quite a bit. I absolutely love this photo, for so many reasons:

I love that it was a tricky angle to get this shot. I love that the feather is pointing to the cross. I love the cream, blue and patina colors. I love the wispy clouds in the blue sky. I love the details in the St. Gregory the Great statue. Love, love, love!

While in Paris earlier this month, we visited Notre Dame. You know, that tiny little church, that’s just a few years old? No really, that amazingly large and beautifully designed French gothic, 850 year old Roman Catholic cathedral, near the Seine. There’s so much age, history and richness in those walls.

What have those walls…

• heard?
• witnessed?
• saved?
• protected?
• been scarred by?

While inside Notre Dame, I was inspired to photograph the texture of the walls, with the vision to add the texture to the St. Greg photo in particular.

I wasn’t sure what result I’d get, but I have to say: I am so in love with the way it come out!

How did I do that, you ask? I opened up both files in Photoshop (I use CS6). I dragged the texture image into the St. Greg image, creating a new layer. Selecting the wall/texture layer in the “Layers” dialog box, I changed the opacity to 69%, and changed the blending mode on the layer from “Normal” to “Overlay” – just left of the “Opacity” dropdown menu. That’s it! I saved the file and I’m all done!

So it takes all of 5 steps to Add Texture to your Photo:

1. Open both images in Photoshop
2. Drag texture shot into image you’re adding the texture to
3. Select the texture layer and change opacity to meet your needs (I went with 69%; use the slider)
4. Change blending mode from “Normal” to “Overlay” (or any other mode – play around – there are some really cool ones!)
5. Save as new file!

And that’s how my texture got all medieval on ya! As my girls say: easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy! If you haven’t added texture to any of your photos, you’ve gotta give it a try! Just be sure to save your file under a new name.

Thanks for stopping by and have a joyful, creative, blessing filled day! Make it a very good, Good Friday!
Live creatively!
xoxo,
/c