How Do You Add Overlay Textures in Photoshop?

Adding texture overlays in Adobe Photoshop can dramatically enhance the visual depth and style of your images. According to the provided reference from Avi at gokuche. Design, the process begins with crucial preparatory steps within the software.

Initial Steps for Texture Overlays

Based on the reference, the foundational steps involved in introducing a texture overlay into your Photoshop project are as follows:

• Duplicate Your Background Layer: Start by creating a copy of your original background layer. This is a standard, non-destructive practice in Photoshop that allows you to work on a duplicated layer without altering the original image data. This safety measure ensures you can always revert to the initial state if needed. You can typically do this by right-clicking the background layer and selecting "Duplicate Layer" or by dragging the layer to the "New Layer" icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.
• Bring In the Texture: The next step is to introduce the texture file itself into your Photoshop document. This might involve using the "Place Embedded" or "Place Linked" command from the File menu, or simply dragging and dropping the texture image directly into your document window. Once placed, the texture will likely appear as a new layer above your duplicated background layer.

These steps lay the groundwork for integrating a texture. While the provided reference specifically covers these initial actions, the subsequent steps to apply it as an actual "overlay" would typically involve:

1. Adjusting the texture layer's position and size to fit your composition.
2. Changing the blend mode of the texture layer to an option like Overlay, Soft Light, Multiply, or Screen, depending on the desired effect. The Overlay blend mode is often used to blend the texture based on the luminance of the underlying layers.
3. Adjusting the opacity of the texture layer to control the intensity of the overlay effect.
4. Adding layer masks to selectively reveal or hide parts of the texture.

However, the provided reference material focuses specifically on the first two steps of preparing your document and importing the texture file.