Today's Daily Texture is a soothing, dramatic water scene.  I paired this texture with one of the absolute worst photos I've taken of one of our eagles fishing.  After sitting for hours in the rain beside the river getting nothing but far away fishing shots, I glanced up only to see the eagle had just come down right beside us and caught a fish, and was already flying away.  Yep, right outside the truck window...and I missed it!  She snuck in from behind, and I never saw her until this moment.  So much for the up close fishing shot I was after.  Anyway, I still wanted to record this moment a bit more "attractively", so once again, it was a texture to the rescue!

I masked away all of the eagle's background and fiddled with her coloring and sharpness {which was a major job considering the horrible lighting and rain}.  Then I placed a duplicate of the texture layer on top and set it to soft light at 100%.  This gave the art more color, contrast and drama.  And then I realized it would be nice to place her reflection in the water, so I duplicated the eagle layer, flipped it, moved it down, made it a little smaller, faded it out, and then blurred it just to create a hint of reflection under her.  Now one of my worst photos has become a work of art, all thanks to this texture.  And my missed shot doesn't seem quite as bad now. :)

At that point, I decided to merge everything and take the merged image into Topaz Impression.  I found a preset I'd made with very small brush strokes, and I ran this preset on them.  This preset adjusted the color of the entire image, giving the dogs and the beach all similar tones.  Which brings me to the point that Topaz Impression isn't just good for painting...it's good for making two separate images blend together more evenly, both with brushstrokes and color.  I just love that program!

Here's another one of the frame texture backgrounds I've been working on.  This is similar to Sea Frame, released on February 10, only this one features more earthy tones.  I paired it with a photo of a Tennessee cotton bloom, originally.  At some point in this process, I changed my mind and decided to PAINT the cotton, rather than use the straight photo.  After painting the cotton right on top of the background, I then placed the background on top and set it to soft light layer mode at about 50%.  This enabled the cotton {which was a bit cooler in color} to pick up the tones of the textured background.  Then I decided to add some words and some faded leaf elements to finish out the work.

​I know you guys have been loving the Splendid Spring Collection, featuring the bright, vibrant spring colors present in this years Pantone Spring color palette.  But there are those images which require softer and more muted tones, so this newest mini pack just released today is for those works of art.  The Spring 1 Mini Pack features 10 fabulous textures in the soft and subtle tones of the past, and they work wonderful with flowers, birds, butterflies, and another other subjects from this season of new growth and renewal. 

Today's Daily Texture is a very versatile, neutral one, with just a hint of color in the center.  I used this texture with the two songbird images below and prepared both of them the same way.  First, I masked away their backgrounds, leaving the texture behind them.  Then I duplicated the texture layer and placed it on top, setting it to soft light at 50%.  Then I duplicated the texture again, and placed it on top, setting it to hard light at 50%, and then masked the center area of that texture away slightly until the birds were the tones I wanted.  Now I have two beautiful songbird images which can serve as a pair, hanging side by side in a room.