Launching the program

So you’ve got Photoshop open, and you have a photo open as well.  Head on over to the Filter menu, and click on the Dirty Pictures menu item at the bottom.

Selecting a Texture

You can choose the texture you want to apply in one of two ways – the most direct is to select one from the drop-down list in the middle of the Dirty Pictures window (right above all the texture settings).  Textures you tag as a Favorite will appear first in the list, followed by everything else.  Once you make a selection, the texture will be applied to the photo you’re working on.

You can also select a texture from a grid of thumbnail previews by clicking on the Pick Your Texture button at the top of the window.  This button brings up your Texture Library, which you can use to visually browse all the available textures.  Clicking on a texture thumbnail from this screen applies the selected texture, and brings you back to the main screen where you can tweak settings or confirm your choice.

Tweaking the Selected Texture

The texture you select will be automatically rotated, cropped, and resized to fit into the photo you’re working on.  You do, however, have control over two parameters that have a dramatic impact on the result you get.  In the Texture Options section of the main window, you can change the blending mode and the opacity of the texture layer.  The Opacity slider simply controls how strong the effect of the texture is.  The Blending Mode list allows you to select a different blending mode for the texture layer.  Different textures work better with certain blending modes, and a particular blending mode will produce different results with each texture / photo combination.  If that sounds vague and confusing, it’s because there is somewhat of a black art to blending modes in general, but there’s no wrong way to do things, so feel free to experiment!

Saving Texture Settings and Resetting Texture Defaults

If you find a blending mode and opacity for a particular texture that you like better than the default, you can save those settings as the new default by clicking the Save Settings button.  Your saved opacity and blending mode settings will automatically be set for that particular texture the next time that texture is selected.

If you mess up a texture’s settings, and want get back to the original settings that we here at Totally Rad HQ prefer, hit the Restore Defaults button.  Everything in the Dirty Pictures texture library comes with a backup of the original settings that can be restored by pressing that button.  Think of it as an escape hatch.