You might notice the above two images have a different look to each.  Using Topaz Restyle {part of the suite of Topaz software...which by the way, is well worth every penny you will spend on it if you purchase it}, I changed the color tone of texture layer to better suit my original images.  When you first play with the Restyle module, you might notice the colors are quite deep and harsh or overly saturated.  There is an opacity adjustment slider...I usually bright the opacity down to about 50% or less, so the color change is not so glaring and looks more realistic.  

The hawk being chased by the crow was photographed against a blue sky.  Using Restyle, I chose a color tone variation which had more blue in the sky and more green on the ground, and I placed the bird's wings upward toward the blue sky.  This was just a way for me to cheat a little on the masking around those wing feathers. :)  If you have blue sky around wing feathers, and you place the wings over a blue area of background, you don't have to fiddle with the mask as much to get them to look right.

The other hawk was also photographed on a blue sky, so I had to spend more time on him to get rid of the blue edging around the wings.   Since he had a deeper brown tone to his colors, using Restyle again, I chose a color variation of the texture which was more earthy-brown in nature.   His brown body over the original golden field was not appealing...now since the texture layer is toned more like his feathers, he looks like he belongs better.  I also added a gold reflector adjustment {Topaz Lens Effects} on the right and the bottom of the final image, so the field would pick up that golden glow in the same areas his feathers were picking up the glow of the sun.

TIP:  Changing the color tones of the texture/background can give you entirely different looks, all using the same texture!

Spring is on the way here in Tennessee, so I thought I'd release a lovely spring texture today!  "Berries In The Sun" has a variety of spring colors in yellow, green, pink and purple.  I used this texture on the lovely little Robin eating berries below.  I masked the texture strongly off the bird, but only gently masked it off the berries in the background...just to show a hint of his surroundings.  I also used this texture on Spring Cherry Blossoms.  I masked the texture softly away from the center of the flowers, but left the texture very strong everywhere else.  Then I duplicated the main texture layer, placed it on top and mirror-imaged plus flipped it to change the orientation of the texture coloring around.  Then I set that layer to overlay at 100% to make the photo pop with vibrant color.   So who else is ready for Spring? 

Today's Daily Texture is a neutral one featuring browns with a touch of gray, and a creamy white area useful for casting light on your subject.  Which comes in handy when you have a subject like this, photographed in direct sunlight.  Photographing in direct sunlight is something I really strive to avoid.  On the day we were going to the zoo, I checked the weather and it said it was going to be cloudy until noon, at which time the sun would come out.  We got an early start for the 1 1/2 hour drive, attempting to arrive at the zoo by 9am, which would give me 3 hours of photography time with no sunlight.  Well....about the time we pulled into Memphis, here came the sun, full force.  Sigh.  So much for that! 

So here's my original photo of an elephant, loaded with harsh sun shadows.  There's no good {or easy} way to get rid of them...it's best to just suck it up and work with them.  First I masked out the elephant, leaving the original texture beneath him.  Then it was time to work on this sunlight issue.  I had two layer modes in mind...multiply {which darkens things} and overlay {which makes things a little richer in tone AND brightens any areas with highlights}.  I duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top, setting it to multiply at 100%.  This brought in some darkness around the ground level...which I liked, but it wasn't enough to suit me.  So I placed another duplication of the texture layer on top, setting it to multiply as well, but only at 50%.  Now I was liking the ground level and the way his feet blended much better.  For a final step, I duplicated the texture layer yet again, and placed it on top of everything, setting it to overlay at 100%.  This made the light on his head/face/ears/back just glow, and gave the colors a richer tone.  I really, really love this outcome for an otherwise crappy zoo snapshot, so I'm calling this one DONE. :) 

It never fails...when you're at the zoo or a wildlife refuge center, unless it's a cloudy day, your photos will have some harsh sunlight or back lighting on your subjects.  This is because the subjects are in cages or enclosures, and unless the enclosure has a solid background, there will be light entering from the opposite side of where you're shooting.  Which was the case when photographing this Red Tailed Hawk at a wildlife refuge in Reelfoot, Tennessee.  As you can see from my original photo below, the light from the opposite side is coming in.  I walked around to the other side of the enclosure, but my photographic view from that side wasn't as good as it was from this side.  So I had to work with the light. 

It's a good photo "as is", but I didn't like those pesky cage bars in the background.  I could have chosen a grayish texture to keep things in tone with the original photo, but I love the warmth of sunlight, so I used today's Daily Texture - BackLit.  The first thing I did was mirror image the bird so the light on his face was lined up with the lightest spot on the texture.  TIP:  Always make sure the lightest spot on the texture/background matches up with the lightest spot on your subject, so the finished image will make sense to the viewer.  Then I masked out the background of the original photo, revealing the texture background layer I had placed underneath the bird photo.  I also lightly masked off the edge feathers of the bird, bringing the color of the texture into his feathers.

After finishing the masking, I duplicated the texture layer and brought it to the top, setting it to multiply at about 50% to give this image more depth.  Then I duplicated the texture layer again and brought that one to the top, setting it to soft light at 100%...this gave a little more punch of light to his facial area and eye -- but, it was way, way, way too yellow!   The solution to that was to fully desaturate the color on THAT LAYER ONLY, which left the light on his face where I wanted it, but took down the color tone to match the color of the other layers beneath.  TIP:  If any of your texture layers produce too much color...try desaturating that layer only and see if you like the results better!