If you want to add a beautiful, natural glow to your subjects, Today's Daily Texture will do just that!  I paired it with a horrible photo of an owl.  OK, so it's not totally horrible, but the lighting was just awful.  By making some exposure adjustments to the owl {which was photographed just as darkness fell}, I was able to brighten her up a bit.  I added the texture on top and set it to soft light layer mode, masking a little off the owl, as this layer made her face even darker than it already was.  Because her background was a solid {darker} gray, this layer mode enabled the background to just pick up the texture and give the overall image a nice glow.  After merging, I darkened the bottom of the image just a bit more as well.

Due to the popularity of the Woodsmoke Texture in black, gray and white, I decided to create another texture with these dark tones for Today's Daily Texture.    This one worked perfect for this eagle photo of I had with an almost white sky behind the eagle.  I simply placed my photo on top of this texture and chose DARKEN for the layer mode, which completely removed the white background.  By keeping the eagle positioned over the white center, that layer mode didn't affect his colors at all - he stayed the same.  But his background just disappeared!  I didn't do anything else to this one except a slight amount of overall brightening of the merged image before publishing.

Today's Daily Texture is bursting with color and luscious, heavy brushstrokes.  I've used it with one of my bird photos as a background and overlay texture.  I also used it as an overlay texture to change the tones of a {green}  landscape scene, which I then took into Topaz Impression to make a painting.  It worked very well on both!  So if you're in the mood for some bold color to pair with one of your subjects, this one is for you! :)

Today's Daily Texture is filled with deep brown, warm gold, and a mixture of grays.  It's a perfect one for wildlife and animals with brown tones.  I used this texture with a bald eagle photo.  The background of the eagle was solid white, as this was taken on a cold day with gray skies.  I didn't do any masking away of the background - because of its solid color, I was able to place the texture on top in multiply mode, which made the background pick up the texture accurately.  This is one reason I LOVE shooting on gray days...it makes my job much easier. :)  I did mask some of the multiply layer off the head of the bird and a little of his body to maintain brightness there.  Then I duplicated the texture layer again, placed it on top, and set it to soft light layer mode, which added more glow and boosted the colors a bit more.

Someone asked me once where I get my names for my textures and backgrounds.  Some of them are a bit crazy sounding, I know. :)  Being a creative writer as well as an artist, I like to get just as creative with my titles as I do my art.  My names are inspired from all kinds of things...from the weather to food to a scenic place, an object, and of course, colors.  Today's Daily Texture features luscious sky blue paired with gold and browns, and was the perfect match for one of my cowbird photos.  Because his background was a solid light gray, it was easy for me to work this texture in with him.  No masking was done on the main photo layer, and in this case, the texture was placed on TOP of the photo and set to multiply at 50% with some of that layer masked off the bird.  Then I duplicated that layer and set it to overlay at about 50% as well.  After merging, I brightened the overall image up slightly.

Today's Daily Texture is cool-toned, featuring gorgeous teal green and shades of lavender and purple.  I used this texture with both of the images below.  The first is a photo blended with the texture underneath.  I also added the texture on top as a soft light layer at about 50%.  The second is a Topaz Impression painting.  I blended my photo with the texture first and then took the merged image into Impression to complete the painting.