Today's Daily Texture is filled with lush golds, grays, browns, and a splash of turquoise blue.  It was the perfect texture to pair with this bluebird photograph, which was on the dark side except for a splash of light on his right side and belly fro the setting sun.  The movement and tone of this texture just made him a bit more dramatic and powerful that he already was in his original image.  I placed him on top of the texture and masked away his background {which was a solid blue sky}.  Then I duplicated the texture and placed it as a new layer on top, setting this new layer to overlay at about 50%.  This overlay layer boosted the light on the bird, and brought him to life.

Today's Daily Texture is filled with luscious shades of light and bright sky blue, along with natural browns and a touch of mint green.  It was perfect for my fawn image, which is what provided the inspiration for the texture. :)  This kind of image -- with foliage surrounding the subject -- is a tricky one to blend with a texture.  I tend to choose a texture which has a color similar to the foliage, as for the image to make sense, I'm going to have to leave some of the foliage showing throughout the image.  If I have a specific texture I want to use, I will often change the color of the foliage in my original image to more closely match the texture. {which is what I did here, as the grass in the original photo is bright green}  

I placed the fawn image on top of the texture and I masked away MOST of the background and ground around the fawn, but not ALL of it.  I try to have as much of a gentle transition as possible as the texture fades into the grass and as the grass sweeps across in front of the subject.    After I completed the masking, I duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top of the fawn.  I set this layer to overlay, with really made the colors pop nicely in the image.  The baby deer, however, was a bit dark.  So I masked away some of that overlay layer to reveal the true colors and brightness of the deer.

I just never know what I'll find to inspire me...Today's Daily Texture was inspired by the color tones in a piece of paint which has peeled off some wood on the outside of my house. :)  It's proof inspiration is everywhere!  I paired this neutral-toned texture with -- of course - another one of my eagle photos.  This is a photo of the male eagle as he was going after an intruder near his nesting tree.  The day was cloudy and it had been raining.  The light was low, and my sky in the original photo came out completely white.  When that happens, it's the perfect opportunity to use my textures in a layer mode, such as MULTIPLY - which is what I did here.  That dropped the color and pattern of the texture right into the sky area and of course, over the eagle and the tree.  I masked some of this multiply layer off of the eagle to keep some brightness to him.  I duplicated the texture layer again and placed it on top, setting it to overlay at 100%.  This added some nice depth and color to the image.  It was a bit darker than I liked, though, so I raised the exposure on just that one layer to increase the brightness.  After merging the layers, I darkened the bottom of the image a little to offer more contrast with the lighter part near the top.

Today's Daily Texture is filled with hues of vintage gold, blue and greenish-gray.  This texture worked well with a landscape scene of a winding road.  The scene has a nice composition, but lacked drama and light.  The sky in the original photo was totally blown-out white.  The horizon line was too faded and washed out looking.  So I decided to allow the texture to come through as the sky.  I placed the photo on top of the texture and masked away all of the white sky, revealing the texture from underneath.  I masked most of the horizon line away as well, allowing just a hint of it showing to indicate it was there.  I also masked away some of the image very gently around the edges where I wanted to soften things and bring the colors of the texture into the image.

After masking, I placed a duplicate of the texture on top and set it to soft light at 100%.  I masked away just a little of this layer in a few spots.  Then I duplicated the texture again, and placed it on top, setting it to hard light at 70% to complete the image.

Today's Daily Texture is filled with a variety of earthy colors in brown, gold and sage green, along with some soft deep blue at the top.  I had the pleasure last night of photographing a Sharp Shinned Hawk after he caught his prey and this texture blends beautiful with his image.  I placed him on top of the texture and masked away his background, leaving a little bit of the ground showing -- but making sure texture was covering the "details" of the prey.   I darkened the feet area of the bird image a little, and also darkened the bottom of the texture layer too, just to tie him into the ground a bit more.  I then duplicated the texture and placed the new layer on top, setting it to soft light at 50%.  Then I desaturated that texture layer completely.  I duplicated that specific layer, placed it on top, and set it to color dodge at 57%.  After merging all, I adjusted the contrast a bit more to complete this image.

I just love the look of stone...it's absolutely one of my favorite natural textures!  Today's Daily Texture is painted with various tones of gray and is perfect for blending with a variety of subjects, even the colorful ones!  I paired the texture with this little male House Finch, who was standing on concrete.  The original photo was placed as a new layer on top of the texture.  Then I masked away most of his background but left some around his feet in order to keep him grounded in the scene.  Then I duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top, setting it to overlay at 100%.

Today's Daily Texture is filled with gorgeous aquamarine blue tones and is perfect for blending with a variety of subjects.  I chose to use this texture with this cardinal photo.  Normally I'd choose a texture to either blend with the background color (brick red in this photo) or with the bird (golden brown), but in this case, I chose to use this texture because of the old lantern with splendid hues of turquoise blue.  I played with the blending away of the background quite a bit on this before I finally settled on what I liked.  I decided to leave a bit of the rusty red background showing through, and I utilized the texture mostly around the edges.  After the blending was completed to my satisfaction, I duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top, setting it to soft light at 50%.  I turned the saturation all the way down on the soft light layer, to keep control of the color tones, and to still be able to utilize the lighting this layer made.  After merging, I brightened the image just a little to complete it.

How about another sea texture?  Today's Daily Texture features a big ocean wave, and is perfect for your seaside subjects or even just to add some ocean colors as overlays to your photos.  I paired this texture with a photo of a pelican as he took off flying across a lake.  Now, however, he's in the ocean.  I masked away almost all of his background, leaving some of his original water splash as well as his reflection.  The I duplicated the original texture and placed it on top, setting it to overlay at 30%.  After merging, I brightened the image just a little more in my photo software to finish it up.

If you have a subject with a background of dirt, dust, or sand, you'll enjoy Today's daily Texture "The Natural World".  I paired this texture with a photo of a Meerkat, who had a background of sandy dirt.  Because the background color was so similar to the texture, I found it easy to blend away his background, leaving a little of the original background around his face and head in place.  I then duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top, setting it to soft light at 100%.  I toned down the saturation of the soft light layer about 50% to reduce the yellow tones this layer made.

Summertime is always alive with color here in Tennessee.  From the beautiful flowers, colorful birds, lush, green foliage and brilliant blue skies, it's truly a stunning time of year.  Today's Daily Texture is an abstract design, featuring many of the colors I see on a daily basis during this season.  I got adventurous today and decided to create a vibrant landscape -- I knew this texture "SummerScape" would be the perfect helper!

I first placed the texture on top of the photo, and I masked away parts of the texture where I wanted the scene to show.  Then I duplicated the texture and placed it on top, setting it to multiply at 100%.  Then I duplicated the texture layer one more time, and placed it on top, setting it to overlay at 100%.  This layer really made the colors explode!  That splash of yellow brightened the shoreline and added a nice blast of color to the trees.  It was a bit too yellow after the overlay layer, however, so I lightly masked some of that layer off the shoreline in order to preserve the details before I merged the layers together.