friday freebie – Page 6

Slate Board Template

This weeks Friday Freebie is this slate board template. I found it in a cupboard whilst I was rummaging around looking for something completely different but as soon as I spotted this I knew it would make a great vintage template for all your retro styled photos.

Full download instructions are below but you can also
Click Here To Download the slate board template

I can imagine this template being used in lots of ways. You could paste on your own photo, resize it to fit over the slate and blend it in with a layer blending mode such as Overlay. Any photo should work but it probably lends itself best to a timeless, vintage style image.

Alternatively you could keep the template exactly how it is now and just add some text in Photoshop. Think of it as a chalkboard where you can write something witty or poignant… perfect for Facebook!

If you create a photo using the Friday Freebie then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Usage rules
The image is copyright Gavin Hoey 2013. Use is limited to any personal, non-commercial purposes. Please share the Friday Freebie by linking back to this page. Do not redistribute the original image without my permission.

Download instructions
Click the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNZ2lrRjczNV9QbW8/view?usp=sharing

1. Click the Download button

2. The download should start automatically

Free Chalk Texture

For this Friday Freebie I’m going to share a brilliant texture that I photographed just a few days back. Despite it being a very recent image it’s already made it in to several of my images for one reason… It’s an image I shot with my phone!

The texture is a close up photo of chalk that I found on a beach just outside Brighton in Sussex and it makes wonderful texture shots.

Full download instructions are below but you can also
Click Here To Download the Free Chalk Texture

As with most textures, it works best with any photo that has large areas of light colour. I’ve found it particularly effective in landscape photos which feature plenty of sky. To apply the texture simply paste it over your photo and use Free Transform (CTRL+T) to resize it to your photo. Then change the layer blending mode to either Multiply or Overlay. Other blending modes will also work but those two are a good start. I’ve left the orgianal colour in the texture but you may wish to remove the colour or alter the colour to create a different look.

If you create a photo using the Friday Freebie texture then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Download instructions
Click the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNeGtRdlBDbm1jZ2s/view?usp=sharing

1. Click the Download button

2. The download should start automatically

The photos in this post were made in Photoshop Touch for Phone and I’m seriously impressed by what it can do. I’ll do a more in depth write up soon but for now let’s just say that at £2.99, it’ the cheapsest and most portable version of Photoshop you can buy.

It’s unlikely to replace full photoshop for me but I’m really impressed by just how good an image you can make whilst sitting in the car, which is where both these photos were editied. Photoshop Touch for Phone is avaiable in both iPhone and Android version but you’ll need a really up to date handset such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 that I use.

Painted Frame Template

Here’s a great Friday freebie for anyone who loves creating painterly effects.

The template is a simple JPG file which you can adjust to your own needs. For example you may wish to adjust the brightness using Levels or add a splash of colour with the Colorize option in Hue/Saturation. All you need to do is add your own photo over the whole image or just the framed area, then change the layer blending mode from Normal to Screen. Although the Screen blending mode will usually give you the best results, experimenting with other blending modes can yield some unexpected results which may be even better.

If you’ve had success with the template and you’d like to share your image with others, please pop a link in the comments section.

Download the Painted Frame Template

Download instructions
Click the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNVnd4a2twTmNacW8/view?usp=sharing

1. Click the Download button

2. The download should start automatically

Mug Shot Background

Last week I released a video called two portraits, one light and ever since I’ve been getting a constant stream of requests to share the mug shot background I used in the final photo. The background was one I made a while back for a photography workshop using a combination of grungy textures and a bit of Photoshop know how.

The background is just a simple JPG file which you can adjust to your own needs. For example you may wish to adjust the brightness using Levels or add a splash of colour with the Colorize option in Hue/Saturation.

Download instructions are below and once again I’m sharing the JPG file through my Adobe Creative Cloud page. No sign up is required to get a copy of the template so you’re free to jump in and make your own triptych images.

Download the Mug Shot background by clicking here

Usage rules
The image is copyright Gavin Hoey 2013. Use is limited to any personal, non-commercial purposes. Please share the Friday freebie by linking back to this page. Do not redistribute the original image without permission.

Download instructions
Click the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNb0duUlQ4eVZQMkk/view?usp=sharing

1. Click the Download button

2. The download should start automatically

Grungy triptych template

As you take more photos, you’ll need to find more ways to display them. So todays Friday Freebie is a triptych template that uses up three of your photos in one go,

As you can see from the example here, the template has three spaces into which you’ll need to add your own images. An alternative would be to use one image but break it into three pieces. Download instructions are below and once again I’m sharing the JPG file through my Adobe Creative Cloud page. No sign up is required to get a copy of the template so you’re free to jump in and make your own triptych images.

Download the Grungy triptych template by clicking here

Download instructions
Click the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNNzZPMHNQX0VVUG8/view?usp=sharing

1. Click the Download button

2. The download should start automatically

How to use the template
To add your own photo, first select and copy the photo you want to add. Then jump over to the template, Click inside one of the black squares with the magic wand tool and choose Edit – Paste Into (Edit – Paste Special – Paste Into in Photoshop CS5 & CS6)

You can then resize the photo before pressing enter to committing to the change.

Usage rules
Usual rules apply. The action is copyright Gavin Hoey 2013. You may use it for personal, non-commercial purposes only and please do not redistribute without permission. Thank you and enjoy

Instant Snow Action

Here in the UK snow is something we get once or twice a year, which makes it a fairly rare event round these parts. So whenever snow arrives, everyone rushes out to build snowmen, go sledging and record the event with their cameras.

Now I realise some of you get snow all the time and some of you never see snow from one year to the next, but don’t let that stop you enjoying this weeks Friday Freebie.

You can download the action here: instant-snow

This is a one click action, so once you’ve unzipped it and installed it, you only need to hit the play button. The first thing the action will do is to make a copy of your photo and it’s the copy that gets the effect, leaving your original photo untouched.

The action will make three layers of snow and I’ve left all three layers active at the end of the action. That means you’re free to alter, adjust and tweak the snow in numerous different ways. Another nice feature of the action is the random nature of the snow. Put simply if you don’t like the snow the first time you run the action, just close the image down and run the action again and the snow will be different.

Usual rules apply:
The action is copyright Gavin Hoey 2013. You may use it for personal, non-commercial purposes only and please do not redistribute without permission. There is no support offered with this action and you use it at your own risk. Thank you and enjoy.

Friday Freebie No.2

I know a lot of you enjoyed using the Friday freebie grungy frame I uploaded a few weeks back, so I’m going to give away another one.

This time the grungy border has a more industrial feel with peeling paint and screw heads. The centre of the image has a smoother painted look which makes it perfect for for blending with other photos.

If you like your photos to have grungy feel you’ll love this grunge photo frame. This is a very high resolution file of 4666px by 3500px in size, which makes it perfect for print use or down sampling for use with your web based images.

In the photo above I added a colour image as a new layer above the grunge border. Combining the two images is as simple as changing the layer blending mode to Multiply. You might need to use the dodge and burn tools and a levels adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack might be a good idea.

I’d also suggest using images which have lots of sky, large areas of simple colour/tone or lots of nice blurred parts in the photo. Basically a photo with lots of fine detail tends not to blend so well with a textured template like this.

If you create a photo using the Friday Freebie then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Download instructions
Click the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNZEx4MEdDNEJldkU/view?usp=sharing

1. Click the Download button

2. The download should start automatically