From Photos to Texture

Are you ready for a melted-plastic looking texture? It is very simple to create and you can customize it as you wish! You can use any photo you like as a starting point. Take our word for it, the end result will look nothing like the original photo!



Figure 1: The photo we started with.

1. Select Image > Adjust > Desaturate to obtain a grayscale version of your image.
   
   
2. Select Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a Radius of 10 pixels.
   
   
3. Select Image > Adjust > Auto Levels.
   
   
4. Select Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a Radius of 12 pixels.
   
   
This series of steps removes the details from the original photo and displays some blurred patches. Your photo is no longer recognizable.



Figure 2: After a few filters, it is difficult to make out the original photo.

At this stage, the texture's creation and success are merely a question of curves. It is thanks to these curves that you will obtain a plastic-like appearance.

To do this:

1. Select Image > Adjust > Curves and then create settings as in the figure below.
   
   
The actual setting values are of no importance. What counts is that the curve has a "W" form.



Figure 3: The first level curve we are going to apply.


2. Select Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a Radius of 2 pixels.
   
   
3. Select Image > Adjust > Curves and create a U-shaped curve as shown in the image below.
   
   
This U-shaped curve lets you solarize your image. Solarization is a mixture of the negative and the positive of an image. This basically amounts to briefly exposing a proof photo to light during development, that is to say, to change its colours. It is this technique that gives the plastic its melted look.



Figure 4: The second level curve.