Lightroom Presets

Monday Preset – Aged Texture

After the nostalgic-styled preset last week I got a comment that got me thinking. Some one had said it was a shame you couldn’t easily apply cool textures to your photos in Lightroom to really give you that “old” feeling. They were pretty much right. Sure there’s workarounds, and I’ve tried them over the last week but it just became too much of a pain. Especially when I knew I could get exactly what I wanted in Photoshop in about 10 seconds. So this week’s preset is something totally different. It’s not exactly a Lightroom preset but I think you’ll agree it falls into our preset category and is a nice change of pace. So here it is – an old texture file. It’s a JPG file and here’s how to use it.

1. Work on your photo just as you normally would in Lightroom. Then apply any presets to it.
2. Go to Photo > Edit in Photoshop and open the photo in Photoshop.
3. Download the texture I’ve given you (or find/create your own) and open it. Drag the texture on top of your photo and transform it to fit.
4a. Here’s where things get cool. The texture is black with a white background. So if you change the layer blend mode to Multiply you’ll drop out the white and leave only the black parts which gives a nice old look. You can also drop the opacity to fade it.
– or –
4b. Or… if you want a white texture (which works a little better for printing on a white background) then press Ctrl/Cmd + I to invert the colors (black becomes white and white becomes black). Then change the blend mode of the texture layer to Screen. This will drop out the black and keep the white.
5. Either way you go (step 4a or 4b), save the file just like you would any Lightroom based image in Photoshop. Go back into Lightroom and now you can take your textured into any output module just like you normally would.

I know it’s a weird workaround but it’s a way to get a very “Photoshop”-like effect but still keep your photo to output in Lightroom.

Click here to see a sample of the texture.
Click here to download the aged texture image

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20 comments

  1. Mike 13 April, 2014 at 11:29 Reply

    Ok so i’ve dragged and dropped the texture onto the photo and set it in place. The problem is that when I try to invert it using the shortcut, nothing happens. Then I try to invert it with the adjustments panel on the right, but it seems to be inverting the background layer, even though it is not selected. What am I doing incorrectly?

  2. Shawn 5 May, 2008 at 02:01 Reply

    yeah i agree with what someone said earlier, could you also come up with steps on how this could be done in photoshop? i’ve been trying to find tutorials online but haven’t found any good ones as of yet. Maybe it could be highlighted in an episode of photoshop user tv?

  3. Brian 24 April, 2008 at 10:26 Reply

    Thank you for this preset. I really like how the texture works. I guess my question would be, where do you get other textures? I’ve tried searching and have not had much luck. Can you point me in the right direction to find other textures?

    Thank you, love the sight.

  4. dennis 11 February, 2008 at 16:17 Reply

    Hi Matt,
    first some greetings from germany and thank you very much for the you cool LR-Tips!!
    But can you maybe make a tutorial for the best way using textures in Photoshop? Would be nice !!!

    thanks a lot !!

  5. Arielle 31 January, 2008 at 21:29 Reply

    Hi there,
    I just found your blog yesterday, and just love it, thank you so much for sharing so generously the knowledge!
    You seemed to be quite the expert in lightroom, and I’m really hoping you can help me with this problem I’m having.
    I’m a photographer in Pensacola, Fl, and have been using lightroom since the first beta versions.
    Last summer I attended a workshop in Paris, France, given by Scott
    Robert, who is also a big fan of lightroom, and had available some
    preset that he made. Some have really neat effects, but I have found
    that they work very differently on a raw file, versus a psd. Most of
    the time, I much prefer the preset working on a psd file.
    I mostly shoot in Raw (canon 30D), then import my raw images with a card
    reader into my computer, then I open lightroom, and import the new
    folder at its current location. So, in lightroom I’m working on my raw
    files. The only way I have managed to obtain a psd file from the raw
    ones, within lightroom, is to open it in photoshop as a copy, then all those nice presets work awsome. Creating a virtual copy of the raw
    file doesn’t do the trick. This method is ridiculously time consuming
    in a software that is so valuable for a speedy workflow. I’m sure there
    is a much better solution that I just haven’t figured out, could you
    help me?
    I love lightroom, and those presets are great to use, but with my
    technique they’re a pain!
    I’ve tried and spend a lot of time on various
    lightroom forums, but am still in the dark with my problem. I hope
    you’ll bring some light on the subject, I would like to understand also,
    why the presets have such dramatic different effect on the same image
    but different format.
    I hope I explained this matter clearly.
    Thanks for your help,
    Arielle

  6. Chris 29 January, 2008 at 11:48 Reply

    Any way you could give us the steps for doing an Aged Texture using Photoshop Elements?

    It would be nice if you could offer steps for Photoshop CS2/CS3 and Photoshop Elements…please consider this in the future.

    Chris

  7. Gina 29 January, 2008 at 00:18 Reply

    Awesome that you showed this. I actually had a TON of masks from Paint Shop, which I used to use, and kept thinking they were the basic concept of masks in Photoshop, just different extensions. I mean they’re black and white. So I did this with all my masks I used to use in PSP and they work AWESOME in PS! Anyone who used PSP in the past, find your masks folder and do this with them and you’ll have a TON of neat images to work with like this!
    Thanks, Matt!

    xoxo :O)

  8. Peter Marcaurelle 28 January, 2008 at 23:02 Reply

    Matt,

    Great tip . I have also used lightroom to develop two halves of a photo with different exposures, did a merge in Ps and then masked out one half to achieve a overall better exposure, re imported and did final tweeks in Lr.
    Cross processing between Ps and Lr can yield some interesting results.

    Quick question – you have got me going making print module presets. I seem to be having the reverse problem you had with your 5 Across preset with the some Mac people not be able to read my PC generated presets.

    Did you ever figure out the 5 Across preset issue ?

    Is there an issue between PC and Macs with identity plates within the print module ?

    I’ve used some of Scott’s print presets from his Lightroom Tour and they seem to transfer ok from Scotts Mac to Pc, the difference maybe that I’m using a png file as identity plate ???

    Thanks and as always I really appreciate your efforts on this blog.

  9. Wayne 28 January, 2008 at 21:17 Reply

    Would it be possible for your to provide recommendations for a laptop computer for photoshop? With all the dual core, quad core hype, I am hoping that you could clear up what specs are best for running photoshop. For example, I think PS3 can utilize a dual core but not a quad core…but I could be wrong. Could you recommend good/better/best specs for a photoshop laptop including processor, RAM, video card, LCD screen type, etc? That would really be a life-saver.
    Wayne

  10. Jason 28 January, 2008 at 16:52 Reply

    Thanks, Matt. That’s a great workaround and one I wouldn’t have thought of for here. Sometimes I get so stuck in Lightroom, I forget how easy it is to achieve those looks with a simple export to Photoshop like that! I love how so much of your work goes towards that edgy, vintage, nostalgic look; that is a look I love and am trying to work on and improve!

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