Paper textures

I love pushing beyond the limits. In some regards, this is part of my definition of creativity. Here is an example of what I mean by this.

Photographic papers have smooth surfaces. This was true of gelatin silver papers — with a few "canvas" or "silk" finishes that were just awful. And in the world of inkjet papers, smooth surfaces are a requirement because of the way the ink is applied. Again, there are a few exceptions, but not many.

But, visit your neighborhood art supply store. Wander around in the art paper section. There you will see what wonderful papers are available to the non-photography artists — textures that delight, colors in such a wide range of paper bases, thickness options that range from the most gossamer tissues to inflexible boards. Our world of photographic papers is anemic, indeed.

Fortunately, we do have one technique that is available to us that offers potential — at least if used judiciously. We can print any paper texture we want to onto our smooth photographic surfaces. The paper will still be smooth, of course, but the addition of visual texture can be interesting.

I'm working on a new folio of images from my recent trip to Japan in which I'm making photographs inspired from Japanese uchiwa-e prints. Uchiwa are flat (non-folding) fans and uchiwa-e are the prints (usually woodblock prints) that are used to make these fans. I'm making a folio of photographs that have that same shape.

In this context, a paper texture could add a lot to the artwork. Because I'm printing on smooth Hahnemühle Photo Rag, I decided to print a paper texture on the page to simulate some art paper. I scanned a number of paper textures to experiment with several choices. In Photoshop, I made them the color and intensity of textures I thought might work well with these prints. I then printed several sheets of paper with the texture image only and let them dry overnight. The next day, I printed my photographic images on top of the previously printed paper texture. They are wonderful! Essentially, I can create — at least visually — the appearance of any paper texture, in any color, in any tone, with any contrast I need for any given project.

There are several other ways to do this:

• Use a Photoshop texture filter to apply texture directly to an image.
• Layer a texture image (a scan of actual paper, for example) on top of a photographic image in Photoshop and adjust the layer properties blending mode and opacity to achieve the desired effect.
• Use Corel Painter to apply a paper texture (there are thousands available) to any image.

There are undoubtedly other ways to accomplish this same result. As always, the trick with any technique like this is to know when using it works and when using it is a gimmick that is inappropriate and, well, gimmicky. I think of this like any other photographic technique — if the effect makes me more aware of the technique than the photograph, it's probably overdone.

Comments

[Bob Cornelis]

I've worked a lot with adding multiple layers of textures to images to increase dimensionality. Mainly using the layer blending technique you mention.

I'm curious what led you to print the texture first and then the image later? Did you compare that with doing the layering in Photoshop and prefer your method? What's different about them. Seems like you'll have less control over how the areas containing the image blend with the texture.

Love to see how you're experimenting with new approaches to imagemaking!

[Brooks Jensen]

By printing the paper texture first, it is visible in the highlights of the photographic image as well as in the blank paper borders. I you simply place an image on top of a paper background, the whites of the photographic image cover the paper texture image and there is an odd visual artifact created where there is paper texture in the borders but not in the image highlights.

Doing a layer in Photoshop solves this problem, but can also affect the shadows. Sometimes I want a texture in the deep shadows and sometimes I don't. Each technique has its place.