Ben’s Texture Packs Now Available

by | Aug 28, 2014

Hi Gang! I’m excited to announce the launch of my new Texture Packs, a series of products I’ve been working on for some time now. Adding texture overlays to your photos, graphics and illustrations is a great way to add depth and really unify the image. It can be difficult to find (or make) appropriate textures that have the right amount of contrast and variation to make the effect look natural, so I’ve basically done all the work for you. I’m also including a 20-page, detailed guide that will teach you how to use the textures in Adobe Photoshop.

Most of these textures have been shot over the course of two years and 15 countries, as many of my recent travel destinations have been dripping in texture, color and character. We’re talking temple walls in Indonesia, Vietnamese building facades on the Mekong Delta and the little town of Hoi An, city structures in Malaysia, etc. While I love capturing city scenes and landscapes, I’m always on alert for great textures.

One of the texture packs, Paper & Fabric, was a bit more pre-meditated in that I sought out materials that, when overlaid, would create an artistic, organic style (canvas and burlap, for example.)

I’ve got three texture packs available:
Weathered, Grunge and Paper & Fabric

TexturesPromoImg-1

• Three Texture Packs to choose from
• 25+ high resolution textures per pack
• 20 page step-by-step How-To Guide
• Learn to pick the best texture for each image
• See how to apply texture to your photos
• Create irregular edges with bonus frames

GuidePromoHow-to guide included

Click Here to Learn More about the Texture Packs
One Pack is $25, or Get All Three Packs for Only $50

To get an idea of how these textures can be used, here are some in action. (drag the slider handle back and forth to see before and after views):

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PalouseBarn-B

PalouseBarn-A

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A frame effect was also applied on the image below. Eight frame effects are included with the Paper & Fabric pack: 
[beforeafter]

MonumentValley-BeforeMonumentValleyAfter[/beforeafter]

[beforeafter]

WeddingBouquet-BWeddingBouquet-A

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[beforeafter]

Balloons-BBalloons-A

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[beforeafter]
EllaBefore

EllaAfter

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[beforeafter]

Flower-BFlower-A

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Textures are not only great for photos, but graphics and illustrations as well:
[beforeafter]

 YlstoneGraphic-BYlstoneGraphic-A

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Click Here to Learn more About the Texture Packs.

Seattle & creativeLIVE

by | Aug 20, 2012

Hello from Seattle! I just arrived in the Seattle area a few days ago, after having spent some time in Portland. While I’m in Seattle, I’ll be presenting two online seminars with creativeLIVE. If you’re not familiar with creativeLIVE, it is a live, online creative classroom offering up tons of photography-related courses. Most of the courses are three days long, and when you watch them live online, they’re absolutely free. Once they’re over, you may purchase the courses to watch whenever you want. This week, I’ll be teaching the following two courses:

Photoshop for Photographers – Aug. 22-24

Lightpainting (1-day class) – Aug. 25

Once I arrived to the Seattle area, I was eager to meet the creativeLIVE team and go over the details of my upcoming events. It was sheer coincidence that when I went to visit their studio, my good friend and photographer Lee Varis was presenting his live seminar, on shooting and retouching skin. I sat in on his workshop for a bit, and then we went out to dinner that night.

Lee Varis, on the set of creativeLIVE, teaching his Photoshop/photography class on skin.

While I was sitting in on Lee’s class, I was joined by photographer and instructor Sue Bryce. The creativeLIVE gang gave the two of us a chance to quiz question Lee and talk about our upcoming events. You can see the video clip below.


After the creativeLIVE events, I’ll be hanging out in Seattle for a few more days and then flying over to NJ to visit Karen’s family. Karen is already over in NJ as she’s had some family emergencies to deal with. From there, we’ll both head to Photoshop World in Las Vegas. More to come…