On this last day of May, we have another abstract texture, filled with stormy sky colors, along with deep greens and rich browns.  I used this texture with a photo of a buffalo I took up at Land Between The Lakes.  First, I masked away his background, and I resized him down and repositioned him to place him over the darkest area of the texture.  I masked away some more of his feet and legs to blend him in with the darker area of the texture underneath.  Then I duplicated the texture layer and set it to soft light at 50% and I also desaturated that layer to keep the color tones from becoming too bright.  At this point, I merged the layers.

Then I started playing with some things in Topaz.  I love to just go into Lens Effects and start clicking on things.   I stumbled upon a filter called UV Haze.  It has three choices - Generous Haze Reduction, Moderate and Slight.  Being that I like to be adventurous but don't want to go TOO over the top with things, I chose Moderate Haze Reduction.  WOW!  Suddenly my image took on a new life...the brushstrokes, lighting and fur on the buffalo all just popped - whereas before, the image was softer.  Now it had energy and excitement!  I liked that, so I clicked OK.

Then I went back into Lens Effects and went to the warmth filter, choosing the one in the middle to warm up my image.  It's no secret I love warm colors, but in this case, I specifically chose to add warmth because the texture is cool in tone, and my buffalo was photographed in bright sun, making him quite a bit warmer.  By using this filter and warming up the image as a whole, now the buffalo fits better with the texture.

If you like a texture/background with dramatic lighting, Today's Daily Texture "Bees On The Wood" will appeal to you!  Lots of warm, golden colors are paired with dark shades of brown and black and a touch of gray for interest.  I used this texture with the Iris photo shown here.  After masking away the background from the flower, I placed the flower on top of the texture.  Then I duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top, setting it to multiply layer mode at 30%.  Then I duplicated this layer and set the new layer to soft light at about 40% to brighten things up a bit more.

Today's Daily Texture is an abstract one, filled with bold brushstrokes and exciting energy.  Based on the colors found in a barn filled with rusty old objects, you'll enjoy deep orange and rich gold mixed with soothing teal green in this texture.  I paired this texture with a photo of a Bengal Tiger.  He appeared to be loaded with pent up energy the day I photographed him, and I felt this texture with it's orange and gold colors was a good match with his fur tones.  I masked away his background and placed him on top of the texture.  To further match his fur tones, I duplicated the texture layer and set it to soft light at 50%, leaving this duplicate layer under him as well. 

Today's Daily Texture is filled with a beautiful array of blues and greens and brown and cream...all the lovely colors of the sea!  I used this texture on the Egret image and this one was actually very simple - no masking involved!  The bird had a soft blue/gray sky, as his background and I simply placed the texture layer on top and set it to hard light at 100%.  This boosted the color of his original background and his white feathers picked up some of the colors from the texture in this layer mode, too.

Today's Daily Texture is one rich with drama, excitement and light.  I used this texture on the photo of a pair of elephants.  After placing the elephant photo on top of the texture, I masked away their background, being careful to leave just a hint of the ground their feet were on.  Then I darkened the area around their legs and feet, and I also darkened the same bottom area on the texture layer to make sure they were grounded well.  I then duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top, setting it to overlay at about 70%.  This increased the yellow/gold a bit too much, but I really liked the play of light across the top of the back of the elephant on the left.  To tone down the golden color, I decreased the saturation on the top texture layer.  I then brought the image into my photo software and brightened it up just a little before finishing.  

I played hookey the past couple of days, so today I'm releasing two textures to make up for the one I missed yesterday!  Inspired by my day by the water, I hope you will enjoy these soft textures with ocean colors.  One is horizontal and one is vertical.  I used these two textures in both of the images shown below.  After masking away the backgrounds of the birds and placing them on top of the texture, I duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top, setting it to soft light on each.  In the flying image, the soft light layer was set to 100%.  In the standing image, it was set to only 60%, as that photo was a bit brighter to begin with and didn't need the full brightness of a 100% layer.

Today's Daily Texture is filled with the warm colors of a setting sun at the end of the day.  I paired this texture with a photo of a Bengal Tiger, just awakening from a nap.  I placed the photo on top of the texture and masked away the background.  I left some of the ground he was resting on showing, in order to give him a sense of place.  Then I duplicated the texture layer twice, putting both duplicates on top.  I set the first one to multiply layer mode at 30%, and set the second one to soft light layer mode at 100% to complete this image.

If you need a nice, subtle background for a subject, Today's Daily Texture with soft blue and gray colors might be perfect.  It certainly worked well on this portrait of a Tree Swallow.  I used the texture as a background for the main bird, and then I also added another photo of a flying swallow, gently masking his feathers away to blend him in with the background.  Afterwards, I added a duplicate layer of the texture on top and set it to soft light at about 60% to deepen and enrich the hues of the entire image.

While I will use this texture with birds, animals, flowers and maybe even a landscape scene sometimes, I think it would also work very well with human subjects!