Photoshop Tutorial: How to Apply Textures to Photos

A Quick and Easy Guide for Beginners

Before you start: Choose a photo and a texture to work with in Photoshop. I chose to work with a portrait as the photo I am applying the texture to. It is best if the texture is the same or larger than the photo. The photo should not be larger than the texture.

What is a texture?A texture is a photo that has structures of interwoven elements is in it, especially with respect to the size, shape, and arrangement of its parts.

Step 1) Open up the canvas with the texture on it. Select the entire picture by right clicking on the picture with the lasso tool or the rectangular marquee tool (both located on the main vertical menu). The "moving ants" all the way around the picture indicate the picture is selected.

Step 2) On the top horizontal menu, click Edit and then Copy on the drop-down menu.

Step 3) Now open up the canvas with the photo you’re going to applying the texture to. Again, go to Edit on the top menu, but this time select Paste. This should put the texture on top of the photo you’re applying the texture to. At this time you should not be able to see the photo, only the texture on top.

Step 4) Open up the layers menu on the right side. If you can’t find it, go to Windows and then down at the bottom select Layers. If the box is already checked, uncheck it, and then go back to recheck it again (this will open the windows box automatically to Layers).

Step 5) In the layers box you need to right click on the layer with the texture. (There should be only 2 or 3 layers here). Next, select Blending Options.

Step 6) You will now be at a large menu. Highlighted in blue on the left side should be Blending Options: Default. We are going to use both the Opacity and Blend Mode under General Blending at the top. Click the drop-down menu under Blend Mode and select Overlay (towards the middle of the menu). This will now make the texture over the photo more transparent. The default Opacity should be 100%.