Since I read this photoshop tutorial on using textures several months ago. I've tried it on a couple dozen photos. I think I've got the "how" part down pat. I'm just not so sure about the end result. Every time I do it to one of my photos, it comes out looking like "What's that weird stuff doing there marring an otherwise okay photo?" I guess part of the skill in applying textures to a photograph lies in the judgment to choose what photograph and what texture.

So instead, I'm using the exact same subject from the tutorial: a dandelion about to go to seed from our front yard.

When I first read the tutorial, I noticed she called them "wishing flowers." I'd never heard that term before and thought it was lovely. As kids we did blow on them and wish - the number of seeds left after blowing was supposed to represent how many years it would take before your wish came true. But we just opted for the less poetic name: "dandelions." Being fairly unimaginative, I still call them that, but interestingly, I started to notice that The Dormouse also calls these "wishing flowers." Must be something she picked up at school because I'm pretty sure The KoH calls them "those blasted things that spread weeds around."


Anyway, here's my straight out of the camera photo:


Here's the same photo with some sharpening and a color boost.


Now here it is with the texture applied. I think I left out a step and bumped up the hue/saturation levels at the same time. Hence the bluer blue.


And here's that photo with a color applied over top. I went with an odd kind of color choice... one that a friend would refer to as "stool yellow."


So what do you think? The photo with the textures and colors? Or just the straight out of the camera shot? I'm still on the fence. Maybe it's just not my style.

This one is much cuter.