Photoshop: Backgrounds and Textures

Course details

Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Learn how to transform relatively straightforward photographs into distinctive visual art, using Photoshop backgrounds and textures. In this course, photographer and digital darkroom expert Harold Davis walks through the technical specifics of adding backgrounds and textures to your Photoshop compositions, and provides the inspiration and resources you need to get fantastic results. Learn how to provide context and "frames" with backgrounds, and use textures as nondestructive overlays to enhance the look and feel of your images. Harold shows how to use scans and photos of found objects as the basis for custom textures, and even license textures from commercial libraries. Plus, discover a post-production workflow for the iPhone that maximizes your flexibility, mobility, and creativity, and explore four iOS apps that Harold recommends for iPhone photography.

Learning objectives
Using blending modes, masks, and selections to build backgrounds
Creating and sourcing backgrounds
Creating effects with textures
Adding textures to portraits and landscapes
Licensing textures
Creating texture-based effects on the iPhone

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Extending the power of photographic imagery
02 - Backgrounds and textures for your use

1. Working with Backgrounds

03 - Different background ideas
04 - Blending modes for high-key images
05 - Masking an image
06 - Photoshop selections and backgrounds

2. Where Do Backgrounds Come From

07 - Commercial sources of backgrounds
08 - Creating your own backgrounds

3. Working with Textures

09 - Textures are overlays
10 - Textures and blending modes
11 - Poetic, romantic, and dreamy effects
12 - Textures for floral imagery
13 - Using textures for people photography
14 - It was a dark and stormy landscape

4. Licensing and Making Textures

15 - Commercial texture libraries
16 - Photographing your own textures
17 - Texture plugin from Topaz Labs

5. Textures on the iPhone

18 - Post-production workflow on the iPhone
19 - Mextures app and textures
20 - Distressed FX for layers and blending
21 - The full-featured Snapseed app
22 - Image Blender app for compositing

Conclusion

23 - Next steps