Some days ago, Mara asked on Filipina Flickrites how to apply textures on pictures without covering certain parts of the subject. Mine’s a quick and dirty process (which is the same way I go about adding vignettes to my pictures) but it does the job. Here’s what I do:
Let’s take this picture of this hipster wannabe (one who has spent too many hours reading diet pill reviews):

Drag/paste the texture on to a new layer:

Change the blend mode to whichever looks best (I usually set mine to multiply):

Hit U to bring up the shape tool and choose the rounded rectangle (or whichever) and adjust the radius as you please:

Right click and choose "make selection":

Set the feather value (the higher the number, the softer):

Backspace to delete!

Ta-da!

If you’re Filipina and on Flickr, please join the FF group. We do weekly themed pictures and well, we’re fun.


Hi, I'm Helga Weber and welcome to my personal site. I'm 25 and in the process of learning how to make adventurous life choices. I dislike old people but I love grandma clothes. My goal in life is to build a ball pit right next to my bed. Currently searching for the perfect house coat. My lover is the greatest. 
Quick, easy, and effective ;)
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That’s nice and easy.. I usually get really picky and trace out my image with the pen tool and then mask it out… if I don’t mind it messy, I’ll get a huge brush and just roughly mask it out.
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Nice tutorial. Where do you get or how do you create those textures?
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Thanks for this really simple yet helpful tutorial, Helga ;)
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That seems simple enough. If only I could get a pirated version of Photoshop on my Macbook, then my life would be complete. lol
What hipster wannabe?! WHERE?!
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That’s how I used to do it. So easy!
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Thanks! I’d have to try this soon.
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I miss Photoshop. =’(
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wow! ok yun ah…
salamat!
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wow cool! i have to try this myself.. I’m so noob and this is just for me :D
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wooot.. dumoble ulit ang http sa first comment ko.. weird.. wah
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Wow, I really love this! Definitely bookmarking it for future reference. Thanks for sharing. :)
(By the way – that is an AWESOME photo of you – if it is you, which I’m assuming it is!)
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Nice effect :D
And that is one sexy picture of you!
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I’m so lazy, I just used pre-created actions to do all the texturizing for my vintage photo photos. Make other people do that hard work for me hehe
Actions are so quick though
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good effect.
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