Hi, it's me ... textured

[ana.gr]

I love combining textures as backgrounds for some shots.

This is the result ...



... of combining this texture and this SP.
Experimenting with blending mode of layers sometimes gives you some spectacular unexpected results; not here, where the result after blending in soft light mode was quite predictable.

De ana.gr

Hope you like it.
Regards

[Steve Smith]

This is a great image and effect - Id really love a tutorial on this if at all possible please!

Steve.

[Glayva]

All I can say is "Stunning"

[ana.gr]

Originally Posted by Steve Smith

This is a great image and effect - Id really love a tutorial on this if at all possible please!

Steve.

Sure, it's easy.
I opened both images in Photoshop (but could have used GIMP instead), texture and original SP. I copied the second onto the first, in a new layer. I left the size of the SP as it was, smaller than the texture, because that way it produced that frame effect, anyway, you can always resize the copied image.
And then, play with the blending modes of the second layer: Starting from normal, to screen, soft light, extrussion, etc, chose the one that you like. I think I went for a soft light here.
I gave more or less the same explanation as a blog entry here.
Hope it helps.
If you have any question, feel free to ask.

Originally Posted by Glayva

All I can say is "Stunning"

Thank you.

[photofun]

I love what you have done with this! Thanks for sharing your technique to get it.

[ana.gr]

Originally Posted by photofun

I love what you have done with this! Thanks for sharing your technique to get it.

Glad you liked it! Thanks for your nice words.

[FocalFrenzy]

Hi Anna. Is this a "Stock" background that you downloaded, or is it one of your own? Either way, the end result is fantastic. I love creating my own backgrounds out of almost anything with an interesting texture to it. Do you adjust the opacity on the texture layer, or does the layer mode you choose do that? I'm sorry for all of the questions. As much as I like textures, I'm not that experienced with working with them.

[ana.gr]

Originally Posted by FocalFrenzy

.

I love creating backgrounds too. This one is a photograph I took of a tiny portion of a huge piece of artwork at a public place; it gave the aspect of painted wall, which I loved.
As for the opacity, I didn't alter it, as it fitted quite well with the original, not disturbing any improtant part, while showing in the background. The trick was that the shape of me is very dark and the sky was quite blown. So, yes, it was the layer blending mode itself which produced this result. Overlay usually gives extraordinary results, but here it was one of the light options.
Ah, and thank you for your nice comments. I'm glad you liked it. And, of course, should you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.