I have recently been working on some new textures. I thought it might be fun to offer a free set of textures and see what other people could do with them.

I had loads of fun making these textures. They were all created with my Canon EFS 60mm macro lens with post work done in PS5. You can find cool textures everywhere. I have photographed everything from rusty metal gates to the scratches on my kitchen sink.

Although I don’t use textures in my work a great deal they are a lot of fun to play with and can completely transform the feel of an image. Here are a couple of before and after images using some of my textures.

I already have a second set of free textures ready to give away and will post them soon, so come back/follow me. If you like the textures let me know.

More textures coming soon!!!

Terms of use

These textures are royalty free. They may be used for both personal and commercial use.

(Not for resale or to be used in their original format. Please do not claim these textures as your own)

You don’t need to provide credit (although it is always nice)

I would love to see what you create with these textures so please feel free in place a link to your work in the comment box.

Download Textures

Of all the questions I get asked about my photographs, How to do the oil and water abstracts is the question I get asked the most.

Just the other day someone asked how do I get lots of bubbles and not have the oil just flatten out into 1 or 2 bubbles……..’Washing up liquid’.

After a lot of experimenting I found that adding a little washing up liquid to the water stopped the oil flattening out and gave me lots of oil bubbles.

Set Up

• Glass tumbler (Make sure the base is clear with no writing/markings)

• Olive oil

• Water

• Background. This can be anything. For these shots I have used colourful feathers.

 Or you could try, wrapping paper, coloured paper or lighting gels.

Kit

• Canon 7D

• Canon EFS 60mm f/2.8 macro lens

• Canon EF25 II extension tubes

• Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX flash

Place coloured paper, feathers etc. under the glass. Add a little washing up liquid and a few drops of olive oil.

Settings

Typical setting I use for these shots:

• ISO 100

• Aperture f/16 – f/18

• Shutter speed 1/250

• Manual focus

• Manual flash

Or you could try a wider aperture of f/3.5 for a different look.

If you are not using a macro flash you could try additional lighting maybe a lamp, a higher ISO, slower shutter speed (tripod would be needed for this) and a wider aperture. These sorts of shots are all about having fun and experimenting.

Finally: check the photographs for dust. No matter what I do, I always seem to get tiny bits of dust in the water. I remove these in Photoshop with the healing tool. I also often add a little contrast to make the colours pop a little more.

I have kept this blog quite short. If there is anything I haven’t covered, please feel free to get in touch with me or leave a comment.

Thank you for your visit.

More Oil & Water Abstracts

Please feel free to leave comments, posts & questions.

Sharon