Not Just a Pillow

Ok I agree wierd title for a tutorial about photography.  I want to show you how to make a creative overlay for your photos.  Of course there are many filters, edges and apps that can do similar things with just a click or you can buy an overlay to use in Photoshop. Why not be original and come up with one of your own from something around your house.  This requires any version of adobe photoshop or elements.  Anyone who knows Photoshop, there are a dozen ways to do the same thing.  There are short cut keys but I will not go that deep into Photoshop as it is an extensive program and I want to keep it simple. I took the following photo in the backyard.

Zoom in on any of the images to see more detail.

I like things with texture but I know I can take it further.  I then took a photo from a couch pillow.

Open both of your photos in Photoshop and make sure you are on the pillow photo.  Go to the top menu and select "select" and hit all.  This will select your whole photo.  Take your mouse and place it anywhere on the photo and drag over to your first photo.  What you see is your couch pillow photo covering your other photo.  Go to the top menu and hit "windows" and then "layers".  This will bring up your layer palette menu.  Inside the layer palette, select the layer right above your background. Where you see the word "normal" (this is the layers blending option), choose that and go down the drop down menu until you see "softlight" and choose that.  Go to the right of that drop down menu and choose "opacity".  You can go down in opacity to what you think looks good and to where your first photo is showing through. You can play with other blending modes to see which one you like. Now you have to go back up to the top menu bar and choose "layers" then "flatten image".  Do a file "save as" so you keep your original photo.

Here is my final result:

Not too dramatic, just gave it some texture and contrast.  The following images are what you can do with that same pillow photo by going to the filter gallery.  I chose "accented edges" in the "brush stroke" section".  I then chose "cut out" in the "artistic" section.  After that in the top menu secton, I chose "image", then "adjustments" and finally "replace color".  You can replace any of the colors you want.  

This image is "Accented Edges" in the "Brush Stroke" section of Artistic filter gallery.

This image is heightened contrast without the "cutout" filter applied and I did some color replacement.

 This image is applying the "cutout" filter and replacing the color.

Email me if you would like a free full size copy of the couch photo to use as an overlay.