'Solstice' free photoshop hi-res texture

Today is the Winter Solstice for us up here in the northern hemisphere...a time when the days are short and natural rhythms are slow. It's a perfect time to go within, take stock of the year and to begin making plans and setting intentions for the coming year ahead...the inspiration for this texture was, of course, the sun, a combination of warm, golden hues, nature's rhythms and the ancient traditions that mark them...

'solstice' texture

'solstice' texture

'solstice' texture

'solstice'
 click here to download!

A small gift from me to you, my lovely readers, followers and commenters...a free hi-res photoshop texture to celebrate the Winter Solstice, the coming longer days, and to say thank you so much for being here...it really means a lot! 

Try this texture for free by clicking on the link above, or by going to my free textures page where you'll find more freebies to try out...I found that this texture works really well to give a lovely old fashioned look...here's how:

1: Open up both the image and texture into photoshop (I use cs5)

2: Select the image and create a black & white adjustment layer

3: Select the move tool and add the texture to your image (remember, you can stretch the texture to fit any size, like I have above, so although it's a square texture, it can easily fit a landscape/portrait too, and as it's high-res, you won't lose any quality!)

4: Select 'soft light' blend mode for the texture layer 1 and keep it at 100% opacity

5: Duplicate this texture layer (layer 1 copy), this time adjusting the opacity to 58% opacity

6: Go back to the black & white adjustment layer and reduce opacity to taste, bringing a hint of colour through. (In this case, I used 100% opacity but in some of the other images, I reduced it down to around 75%, which allowed some of the lovely muted pinks to show through)

7: To brighten, I used the levels adjustment to add some true whites

8: To give an old fashioned feel, I used a hue/saturation adjustment to reduce the reds and yellows just slightly.

9: The final layer 2 is my watermark


I hope you enjoy using it :) Wishing you all a merry, joyful and wonderful season :)

Linking with this or that thursday, texture thursday and tuesday tips&pics