Flypaper Textures: orbit around the winter sun

Testimonials

Bill Tongue writes:
I purchased your complete set a few days ago and have been going crazy reworking some of my old stuff. I've always "painted" my pics and made my own textures. Your offerings have changed my end product dramatically. A little Photoshop, a touch of NIK and three layers of Flypaper.

Laura James writes:
I started using your textures from looking at some of what Tony Sweet was creating. Loved them immediately and am hooked on using textures. Thought you might be interested in seeing some of the images I created. You can see my photos at You can see my photos at www.lightwriterimages.com Look under Laura's gallery - new photos. Thanks for offering your textures for use, LOVE them.

Larry Gerbrandt writes:
I'm fairly new to the whole texture layer look but have fallen in love with the look and most of the credit goes to a combination of your textures, your tutorials and outstanding images. The Summer Painterly collection is like playing in a sandbox full of wonderful toys, with Brushed Rose at the top of the heap. Your tutorials have encouraged me to try blending modes other than Overlay and Soft Light, with delightful and surprising results. I shoot with a Nikon D3X and it produces huge files. Finding textures with enough resolution to blend with 25 megapixel images isn't easy but your textures scale beautifully. Can't wait for you next set.

Elise (mythlady) writes...
Hi Jill and Paul -- I entered three photos in our local county fair, all of which featured Flypaper Textures. I won blue ribbons on all three, Antique Roses, Two Ships, and Cows, and then the cow picture went on to win Best in Section (visible manipulation) and Best in Show!! I was surprised and delighted, and of course, I owe it all to you.
Thanks for your great work! The textures are wonderful.

pink pegasus said..
Bought Tex box two and Fly edges today - it's great to use them - thank you to your fine and very exclusive textures!

Tom Said..
Fantastic!
As much as I enjoy the painterly/Pictorialist effects that I get with your textures, I'm still working on being more "subtle". You managed to add a golden light,
but in a way that is far different from a "digital warming filter". Looking forward to seeing the results of your further experimenting and trying it out myself.

Delany Dean, JD,PhD Said..
These texture images are just marvelous! I stumbled across them on Flickr, found this blog site, and was instantly delighted. I bought both sets. I have been using textures in my photography for about a year now. I have used some of the images that others have posted on Flickr, and later went on to develop a few pretty nice ones of my own, but I can see that my days of struggling with trying to create my own texture images are over! I will never come close to the quality of these. And I'd rather spend my time using these, anyhow. Thanks for developing these, and making them available!

Cass said...
I think I might just have died and gone to heaven. When I got your e-mail about the new textures I thought "yeah, they'll look the same as the old ones" (yes, you can call me cynical) but I clicked anyway... just in case... just for a peek. And I fell in love straight away and had bought them within seconds. The sky ones are my favorite right now. They are stunning. But they are all beautiful. Can't wait to have a play with them. In the meantime, I might just have to print them out as they are, frame them and put them on my wall :)

Bob said...
The thing I wanna’ talk about here is the Voyageur Map texture, a new texture from flypaper textures. This is my first try with one, but do they LOOK scrumptious!!! These are lighter in tone and texture, pastel-ish in color, more transparent – they just glow. They are big files too, 6 – 8 mb each – really wonderful to work with.

They ain’t replacements for the first series, but delightful supplements that offer us more creative and artistic options. With both texture packs, I think this brings the total to 50 – 60. And no “cheap dupes” either (what I call it when someone designs a nice texture and simply changes the color to make various ones).

Martine Roch said...
These textures are really good quality, very big size and a real pleasure to use in many ways. I'm sure I will enjoy using them more and more...
I can't wait for your next set.

Julie Tardy said....
Bought one this morning, they are great !

SilviaON said....
thank you for the wonderful textures !!
good luck for the group :)

Telzey said....
I'm in love with Flypaper Textures! They're generously sized for print work, easy on the eye, and simple to use.
I applied them to some of my "lost" images and the results were great. So I decided to see how they'd work with some of my finished images. All I can say is incredible. Wish I'd had them sooner.
Am I satisfied? Absolutely! Thank you Jill and Paul for making them available. I can't wait to see what's next.

Anonymous said..
I love these textures. Bought them a few days ago and have been addicted ever since. When I've purchased texture packs like this before, there has always been a bunch I never use and a couple that I do. With this one I really like every single one of them. A+.

Bob Said..
Master Paul Grand; masterful artist, possessed of superb vision, sublime spirit, exquisite imagery, wrote a short tutorial on his texture work. It was an epiphany for me.
It was short, direct and to the point – with examples. All of these damn photo textbooks should be so succinct and direct. Thank you, Paul.
I used his lesson on my new image.
A most elegant, stylish treatment that worked wonderfully for me. I have now added another, subtle, layer technique to my texture work and style.
As Paul quickly showed, there is much one can do with “blending options, blending modes, % of use and % opacity, and color sliders” either as top layers or under layers.

Katieandcalli.com Said..
I'm betting that once you use one of their textures, you'll want the whole set. They're marvelous, subtle textures, so they blend. ...And now I feel like Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny. ("Oh, yeah. You blend.") Point is, the texture isn't what people will see when they look at your photographs. Textures are a delicate thing, in my opinion, and they don't always enhance an image so much as distract, but anyway. Flypaper Textures are really nice textures!

missnoma Said..
"Honesty (texture tutorial and recipe)":
What a fabulous way to teach textures...Even a newbie like me should be able to follow and enjoy...Thank you so much...

Dave Said..
Just thought I'd drop you a line and mention that I've just bought your wonderful flypaper textures set. Thanks for doing this and I look forward to trying them out. They look wonderful and really useful.

sassl Said...
did someone say, you can never be too rich, have too many big dogs, or too many fab textures ...
I'm pretty sure I heard that! :D I love these textures. Bought them a few days ago and have been addicted ever since. When I've purchased texture packs like this before, there has always been a bunch I never use and a couple that I do. With this one I really like every single one of them. A+.these are fantastic, i downloaded them way past a decent hour to go to bed so will give them a go tomorrow. you've both done fine work here, and definitely a next installment is in order.

anniedaisybaby Said...
I am also excited to try out my newly downloaded Flypaper textures. Your blog is fantastic! Love the before and after "rollover" - truly inspiring. I will be using these for a long time to come. Thanks for all the inspiration Paul and Jill. And thanks for contributing to my texture addiction, too. LOL Can't wait to see the next set of textures.

Anonymous Said...
I appreciate you putting your "recipe" info online. Some people become secretive and snobby and don't share their info. I appreciate your openness and willingness.

Oryctes (Dani) said...
I have silently followed this blog for a few weeks and from the tutorial I have seen a sample of what these wonderful textures are capable of, but I had to test it by myself.
I just downloaded the set and with the first quick tests the results are more than promising.
I'm sure I'll be using the textures quite often.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

orbit around the winter sun

In January we often get these midwinter fairs, we think they all come south to over-winter, only returning to northern Europe in the spring.
It was nice to see this fresh white painted Ferris wheel as they're normally brightly colored.
Taken from the ground, with a circular polarizer, the camera turned portrait format.
A few snaps later, I was off to Apple Mac to buy a new 15" Macbook pro, to hook up to my 27" apple cinema display.
I'd been constantly warned these Macbooks weren't really strong enough to process huge Raw files, well I'm happy to disprove this myth!
I really wanted to be able to travel and process whilst away, but I still have the 2008 circa Imac and will now use both. I hope this info helps others decide!:-)
feel free to ask more mac set-up questions.

Processing was long, so I've shortened the recipe as much as possible,
I think it took all afternoon to get this looking something like the way I'd envisioned it. Remember, if you find your image getting too muddy, just add a base image copy as I did here.
My main goal was to get rid of that blue sky, and add a bit more mood.

We've recently heard that people think textures are just used to hide poor photography! Well, nothing could be further from the truth,
as we show in our before and after tutorials, everything is out in the open! Here at Fly we tend to use textures to enhance and bring out more mood from images, filling negative space with mostly organic texture, and some painting with light. We'll have more to say on the subject later!

Brighter HDR version of base image - Luminosity @ 100%
Pans Sky - Overlay @ 61%, softly brushed from parts and white frame.
Muscatel - Soft Light @ 100% Flipped vertically, softly brushed from top and bottom cabins.
Aquarius - Soft Light @ 100%
HDR base 2nd copy - color @ 100%
Muscatel - Soft Light @ 100%, softly brushed from top and bottom cabins.
Luminescent - Saturation @ 93%
Iridescent Brush - Soft Light @ 100%
Iridescent Brush - Soft Light @ 68%, middle brushed away
Iorek Ice - color @ 24%
Aquarius - Soft Light @ 14%

Summer Painterly Pack

36 large textures for only $40

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$100 for Tex Box One and Two and the Fly Edges

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4 comments:

Borealnz (Jill) said...: Have fun with your new toys Paul :-) Beautifully processed as always.
And yes, I agree, I rarely use textures to cover up faults in a photo, they're used to add depth and atmosphere, not to make a bad photo good.; January 26, 2011 at 9:49 PM
paulgrand said...: Thanks Jill, exactly, 'depth and atmosphere'.
After all you cant turn a sows ear into a silk purse! :-D; January 27, 2011 at 1:05 AM
honey said...: i can't seem to find your email, but i wanted to tell you that i just bought your summer pack because of keron psillas's super instructions and gorgeous photographs.

can't wait to try this!; February 2, 2011 at 5:14 PM
paulgrand said...: Thanks Honey, Btw, our email is on the right, just below the white Getty Button!:-)
It Says:
Contact Us; February 3, 2011 at 1:06 AM