A Dying Flower

[OneArmedScissor125]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14517070@N02/2243000858/" title="A Dying Flower by OneArmedScissor125, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2169/2243000858_98c18b7c6d.jpg" width="480" height="500" alt="A Dying Flower" /></a>

I've been seeing more photos using textures and have become interested. This is one of my first attempts. I was trying to convey a sense of coldness and the flower dying, as this was one of the las flowers of autumn. I added a blue overlay layer at a low opacity, a black and white layer of the flower that I changed the shadows and highlights of, and then used four different textures to get the final image. All the textures were either in overlay or hard light mode, and the opacities were all lower than 20.
Did I overdue the textures? Should I keep it simple, sticking to maybe two textures? Does the photo have a cold, depressing feel to it? Should I try a warmer approach, making the photo redder/oranger? Thanks for any feedback.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100

[Jboy]

I really like the textures, and love the colors of the original pic, but in some parts (like the center of the flower) the textures seem to overpower the image and wash out color and detail/sharpness. You could probably use this to some extent to convey that cold feeling, but I think here it's a little too much in some spots.

One thing that might be interesting is flattening the texture layer, and with a brush hardness of 0 and opacity of 20% going over some parts of the flower to bring out detail. This way, you could get a gradual mix with strong textures in the darker parts without distracting from your subject.

I'd be curious to see the same image with less textures. I think this is in part what's washing out the color. Did you try other blending modes? I find that multiply and screen also give interesting results with a single layer. The grain on the texture is also a bit too tight, in my opinion (from the four combined layers?), so I think stripping a layer or two would help on that front too.

Out of curiosity, did you take these textures yourself? I notice they work exceptionally well with this shot and look a bit like the blades of grass in the back.

[OneArmedScissor125]

I don't fully understand Photoshop yet, as I can only use it at my school. Could you explain how to flatten the layer? And what kind of brush would I use? I took one of the texture shots, got two at textureking.com, and one of my friends took another. Thanks for all the advice and for any future advice.

[Jboy]

Ooh, certainly! The version might be off- I use CS3, but in my experience most schools have Elements. The menus might be a different, and I'm not sure if Elements has brush hardness settings, but I took some screenshots, so it shouldn't be too hard to adjust.

Sorry about the confused wording. What I was actually referring to is merging layers. Here's an example:

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2627/flattenar0.th.png (http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=flattenar0.png)

The result is one layer identical to the layers that compose it. Opacity will be reset to 100% in this new layer, though.
As for the brush, I meant to say use the eraser tool. Here are the settings I used and an example:

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/469/eraserzf9.th.png (http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=eraserzf9.png)

The example box on the side shows examples of when you go over the same point in one, two and three strokes.

If your version of photoshop doesn't support hardness, your alternative is using masks. It's a bit trickier, but much more powerful. Here's what I find is the easiest way to do it.

First, hit 'q.' This will switch to Quick Mask mode. The status bar will indicate "Quick Mask." Make sure you're doing this with the texture layer set to 100% opacity.

Next, using the paintbrush tool, set to black, 20% opacity, go over the parts you want to erase. Go over a few times, since the opacity is low.

Go to Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian blur. Set the blur high enough so that you can no longer notice any 'edges' on your mask.

Hit q again to exit the mask mode. Go to Select -> Inverse. This will select the part you masked. Hit delete to clear this part and you're good.

If it did not remove enough to your liking, undo, go to Image -> Adjustments -> Levels. Raise the leftmost cursor to the right. Hit q again, inverse, delete. Finally, if you want more control over the part that you delete, you can use the eraser tool over this selection. You won't need to worry about "staying within the lines" since you cannot erase outside of your selection.

I hope this helps!

[OneArmedScissor125]

Thanks for the help, I'll repost the results in a day or two.