How to Create a Texture Overlay with Photoshop from the Beginning
Last Updated on November 11, 2021 by Peter Wood
What is the texture overlay in photography? Well, the texture is an overlay added to your photograph. The texture overlays include paper, wood, fog, moss, and any other concrete stuff. You can make a text overlay to add depth and extra feelings to your pictures. A proper texture overlay can transform a digital photo into artwork and add to almost all kinds of images. You can get the built-in filters from some image editor apps. Moreover, you can get easy ways to download and create texture overlay effects here. Just read and follow.
Part 1: Where to Download Free Texture Overlays
You can download free texture overlays from the following websites. Some advanced texture overlay resources are not free to use. So you need to pay for a texture overlay sample or go premium to get unlimited access.
Top 1: Freepik
Freepik offers 4,000+ overlays, including paper texture overlay, shadow texture overlay, grunge texture overlay, wood texture overlay, and more. You can download some texture overlays for free in .EPS format. However, you still need to go to Freepik Premium to get the commercial license for all texture overlays.
Top 2: Purple11
Purple11 provides 360 free texture overlays for Photoshop. You can add visual effects and dimension to your photos with that vintage, grunge, and dust textures for free. Just use Photoshop to compose images to add textures and overlays. Scroll down and head to the Free Photoshop Textures section. You can download vintage texture textures by clicking on any thumbnail. Later, you can download a free black and white texture overlay in JPG format.
Top 3: Textures4Photoshop
Textures4Photoshop allows users to download texture overlays for free for commercial uses. You can get rain, watercolor, storm, bokeh, and many other styles of texture overlays. There are 1,000+ free texture overlays in Textures4Photoshop. Moreover, you can subscribe to the free texture overlay downloading website to get the latest ones by email directly.
Part 2: How to Create a Texture Overlay with Photoshop
After downloading a texture overlay background, you can use Photoshop to apply the texture to images. It is the texture overlay Photoshop tutorial you can learn.
Step 1: Open the source image in Photoshop. Double-click the image layer on the Layers panel. You can rename the background layer as the original image or anything else you like.
Step 2: Drag and drop your texture overlay image onto your Photoshop workspace. Adjust the texture image size to span the width and length of the workspace. To distinguish the texture overlay layer from the original layer, you can rename it with a texture image. Make sure the texture image layer is in the first place of the Photoshop Layers panel.
Step 3: Select this texture image layer. Unfold the Normal list to select the specific texture blending mode. You can create a texture overlay with darkening, multiply, color burn, linear burn, darker color, soft light, etc.
Step 4: To make your texture overlay image look natural, reduce the Opacity of the texture image layer.
Step 5: If you want to constrain the texture overlay, choose Layer Mask followed by Reveal All from the Layer list. Photoshop adds a white mask to your texture image layer.
Step 6: Set the foreground color to black. Later, use the Brush tool to paint a specific area you don’t want to cover with texture. Export your image to see the texture overlay before and after the difference.
Part 3: Quick Way to Analog Vintage and Classic Film Effects
If you want to make your overlay textures look like films, you can use analog film and film grain with WidsMob Retoucher. There is a classic film rendering editor that can mix up splendid photos in seconds. You can give your image a unique feel and depth as a pro. Here you can analog film photography effects with Kodak Ektachrome 100VS/25/64/200, Fuji Astia 100F, Fuji Velvia 50, Ilford Pan F Plus 50, etc. Moreover, you can remove image noise, retouch portraits, add artistic effects, and make adjustments within WidsMob Retoucher. It can be a simple Photoshop alternative that can touch up photographs with ease.
- Analog film effects and film grains with multiple options and filters.
- Remove noise occurred by high ISO, fast shutter speed, and other factors.
- Touch up portraits and remove selfie imperfections.
- Add vignetting fish-eye and other classic photo effects.
- Make adjustments with saturation, contrast, brightness, temperature, and tint.
- Support of input and output image formats.
Step 1: Free download, install and launch WidsMob Retoucher. Drag and drop your image with texture overlay into the main interface. Click Next to access all photo editing and retouching filters.
Step 2: To analog camera profiles, click the Film Pack icon on the lower right corner. You can give your texture overlay image a new emotion with Color Rendition Profile, Color Modes, and Film Grain. You can check the film profile in the main display window immediately.
Step 3: Go to Adjustment, Portrait, Denoise, and LOMO sections to retouch the picture. You can click B/A near the bottom to get the before and after comparison.
Step 4: After all customizations, click Save to download your picture. You can save it in JPEG or TIFF format with the original image quality. Or you can reduce the output image quality with sliders. By the way, you can click Share to post the image to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and more.
All in all, you can download and create texture overlays with Photoshop. If you haven’t subscribed to Photoshop, you can use WidsMob Retoucher as an alternative. There are no complex interfaces and expensive subscription plans. You can create an old-film look within 5 minutes. Even you take photos with your iPhone or Android, you can also create an authentic film effect like a pro. No technical skill or high-level equipment is required. Both beginners and experts can create an artistic look with ease here.