CoffeeShop Portrait Texture Magic Action!

Here is my newest action, CoffeeShop Portrait Texture Magic. This action will add textures to your image and automatically remove it from the skin.  You can use this action to add multiple textures and it is fully adjustable so you can remove/add texture in certain areas using the layer masks.  I am also going to post a version later that removes the texture but allows you to keep the texture color on the skin in portraits.

The beautiful image I used for this before/after is from Victoria Ford of Photography by Victoria Ford (Facebook Page).  She generously sent me a large version SOOC (straight out of camera) image for me to use for this action tutorial.

The textures used on this image in this tutorial were free ones from Shadowhouse Creations.  I used Jerry's textures so you could download them and follow along with this tutorial if you want.  Please visit Jerry's site and consider leaving a donation if you download some of his gorgeous free textures.

CoffeeShop Portrait Texture Magic Action Tutorial (please note different action for PSE6-PSE10):

1. Open your image.  This image from Photography by Victorial Ford has not been edited.

2. I ran my Perfect Portrait 3 action on the image.

3.  Start the action (if you are using PSE6-PSE10 make sure the only image open is the one you plan on editing).  If you have PSE11 or Photoshop, use the original action.  If you have PSE6-PSE10 please use the one labeled for use in your program.  The original one will not work!

Click to select the skin tone of your portrait and adjust fuzziness.  Don't worry if you can't select all of the skin, you can adjust it later.

4.  The action will prompt you to open your texture.  Select the texture (these textures are all from Shadowhouse Creations) and click on Place (or OK if you are using the PSE6-10 version).

5.  Once the texture is on your image, drag the bars to fit.  Uncheck Constrain Proportions in PSE if you want to adjust the textures dimensions to fit. Then press Enter.

6.  Photoshop Users ONLY:  The layers pane box will pop up and you can set the blending mode and opacity to taste.  If you do nothing it will be soft light blending mode and 100% opacity.  You can adjust this later.
      PSE Users ONLY:  A box called Style Settings will pop up, just press OK.  You can adjust the blending mode and opacity at the end of the action run.

 7.  When the action finishes running you will see the texture with its layer mask over the background.  If you want to add another texture just restart the action and follow the same instructions listed above.  You can add as many textures as you want and then adjust the opacities, blending modes, and layer masks at the end.

8. Depending on the portrait used, some of the skin might have texture or some of the texture could be too faint on parts of your image.  This is when you play with the layer masks to fine-tune your edit.  Click to select the layer mask by the texture you wish to edit.

9.  Click to select the layer mask and then click on the image.  I used a black soft brush to paint over the face to remove any extra texture on both texture layer masks.  This might not be necessary, it depends on the image used and how well you selected the skin. Use a white brush where you want to add in more texture.  Sometimes the auto selection removes some of the texture from your background, but it is an easy fix.  Remember, black removes texture and white adds it back in!

10. Here is the finished image!  As you can see in the layer masks I added more texture (using the white brush) on the background surrounding the cute little girl.

I hope you enjoy using this action.  My second action, CoffeeShop Portrait Texture PRO, will come out next.  This action is excellent if you want to remove the texture off portraits but leave the texture colors.

Download the free CoffeeShop Portrait Magic Texture action. You can also download it here.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop Actions or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.