NOISE:
Noise is perfect for adding a little crunch to your site. If you're tired of solid colors, this gives you some variation without using more dramatic textures. Here's what you'll need to do:
1.) Pick you foreground color and create the size you'll need for your project. In my case, I used a dark gray (0a0a0a). Make a duplicate of this layer.
2.) Making sure the copy is on top of the original, select the top layer. Go to Filter > Render > Fibers. Don't be alarmed that the fibers turn your foremost layer black and white. For the settings, have the Variance be 10 and the Strength be 50.
3.) Still on the top layer, go to Filter > Distort > Glass. Set the Distortion to 15, Smoothness to 1, and select Frosted.
4.) Set the top layer's blending mode to Multiply (this excludes the white areas) or test out other blending options. If the effect is too harsh, remember the opacity can always be lowered too.
METAL GRILLE:
This technique doesn't require many steps either, just a lot of alignment once you've got the three basic pieces made: a background, a foreground and a circle. Here are the steps:
1.) Select a color and drag your background out the the appropriate size needed. I chose another dark gray (191919).
2.) Using a darker color, drag out a small circle with the circle tool. Go to the circle layer's effects and add a drop shadow. IN the drop shadow options, change the blending mode to normal and instead of using black, pick a highlight color that looks believable in comparison with your background. Change the Distance to 1 and the Size to 2 (this may be different plus of minus 2-3 pixels depending on the size of your circle.)
3.) Add an inner shadow while you're still in the layer effect dialogue box. Change the color to an appropriate shadow color. Change the Distance to 3 and the Size to 5 ( again, a slight pixal variation may apply.)
4.) Now that you have the circles, you can copy and align them in order to make a pattern segment in Photoshop.Not sure how to make a pattern that can be added to your Photoshop library? Click here.
GRUNGE PAPER:
Grunge is always a fun texture to play with. There's something aesthetic about things that appear old or well-worn. I guess that's why destroyed jeans are selling for $50 a pair. None-the-less, here's the last tutorial.
1.) Find a nice image of old paper online (I used this one) and place it in your document. I set the opacity down on mine so the effect is more subtle.
2.) Make a reveal all layer mask on the paper layer. Making sure to select the mask, using a rough texture brush with the foreground color set to black on the edges. Go along the perimeter of the paper with the brush while varying how much you crop into the paper. Go over the sides a few times with different versions of your brush. Change the size or opacity while always making sure to change the path you drag the brush. You may even want to just use a single mouse click here and there. Make it look natural.
3.) If you want to go a bit farther, you can go out and find another image of crinkled paper or old parchment, place the image over top of the original paper, and create a clipping mask. Use the new paper as additional texture only by lowering the opacity and playing with blending modes.
