CC Please, First time using textures

[HeyThereChelle]

I followed an Ice Grunge tutorial I found online. I placed the colors and textures on several separate layers and erased back the eyes in each one.

Too much processing? Not enough?

[Lightwriter]

Very tasteful IMHO. You might want to lessen the intensity of the eyes a bit if you wanted a more subtle look but if intense is what you're after this is perfect as is. Beautiful girl, by the way.

[PamEli]

Very nice, it's the first portrait I've seen done with textures that really stood out. I'm about to step out myself and try working with them... your shot about pushed me to stay up later tonight and give it a whirl.

[HeyThereChelle]

oh thank you. Means a lot.

I loved this picture of my daughter, but the background was a bit blah - very dark, except for the off-white scroll on the back of her chair. It seemed like the perfect picture to play with.

And yes, intense. That is my daughter to a T. I'm glad that is coming across in the photo.

[PamEli]

beautiful girl...

[CaptainNH]

I love it Michelle. Firstly a great shot - focus is spot on and the lighting ratio is gorgeous.

The PP is great too, I like the cool tones with the fur in your daughter's hat & jacket. I love the distressed feel to the texture too, in particular the scratches. I could go either way with the circular marks, but they don't detract from the shot.

That's one for the wall in my eyes. I hope your daughter loved it!

[HeyThereChelle]

Thank you.

If anyone knows where I could find a scratch texture that has an even more distressed looked, I would love to see it. I'd love to have more scratching around her face, in a disconnected framing pattern. Something that would almost look as if the photo was being rubbed away. I tried to do it by hand, but yeah... that didn't work.

[IainM]

Really nice shot, the textures work really well. I also like the cloudyness of the image. The only thing I noticed was the scratches not really looking like scratches, they are the same thickness end to end an don't have an "organic" feel to them.

To fix this you could do two things: one is use a wacom tablet (those things you draw with using a stylus pen on to photoshop or whatever) because they register pressure and will alter brush sizes based on that. If you dont have one, borrow one (no sense buying if you don't use it much)

The other, equally good way and perhaps a whole lot easier is to take a sheet of perspex or something and some rough sand paper, scratch it up a bit and take a photo of it (making sure the light is at the right angle to highlight the scratches) and use that as a texture layer.

[xxpinballxx]

I think the shot is done fantastically! I love these intense eye shots and textures are a big deal to me too. I prefer the more edited photos and do a whole lot of processing of my shots. This one has a gorgeous little girl as the subject which never hurts either!
Ther eare groups on Flickr that offer free textures. Making your own textures though is by the easiest way to get that exact look you are going for....remember blur and zoom is a HUGE help in creating textures.
For example take a shot of a plain fence against a white snow covered field or a blue sky or whatever it may be. Then convert to B&W then blur and set angle to whatever you like and then xoom way in and sharpen. That can be done with actually any image you have! No matter what it is zoom and blur enough it will be a texture no one will duplicate or have ever seen.