High Resolution Textures » Inspiration http://www.highresolutiontextures.com Free Textures and Patterns for Design, Games, 3D and more! Sat, 10 Jul 2010 05:26:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Interview with professional photographer Tyson Crosbie http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/interview-with-professional-photographer-tyson-crosbie http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/interview-with-professional-photographer-tyson-crosbie#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 12:34:38 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=215 I am very pleased to present to you the first interview here on HRT. A few months ago, I noticed some outstanding textures in the HRT Flickr pool and I wanted to find out more about the artist, Tyson Crosbie. Turns out, he’s a professional photographer from Phoenix, Arizona, and he agreed to do this interview and share some details about his artwork and the process behind it. So let’s hear, what he’s got to say:

HRT: Tyson, thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview. To start off with, could you give us a little introduction of yourself by telling us where you are from and what your background is?

Tyson: I was born in Ogden Utah on 5.6.78 and grew up outside of Eugene OR. Retruning to Utah to get my BFA in 2005. I’ve lived in Utah, Oregon, Missouri, Texas and Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. I currently reside in Phoenix, AZ where I run my photography studio and create an annual body of work best described as abstract expressionism.

Phoenix 21

HRT: I noticed your work, when you posted some great texture images to my Flickr group. These photos are part of the “Phoenix 21” series. Can you tell us a bit more about this project? How did you come up with the idea? What’s the story behind those pictures?

Tyson: Phoenix 21 is the second annual series of work created out of Phoenix, as I’ve lived here for 2 years. A lot of my work is rule based and the idea for creating an annual series came out of the work itself. I’d been shooting in all these different cities and moving around a lot, nothing was cohesive yet and I still had the view that my work was largely just an exercise. That all changed when I got to Phoenix, I felt more a part of a place than I had previously and decided to make this my home.

To me the rules of the project help restrain me and allow for more creativity than having no bounds. For example the first abstract series I did was done in parking lots, only straight lines and only primary colors; and even that project swelled to 35 images. I use the lower numbers now to force myself to edit to the absolute limit, the absolute best images.

HRT: Can you explain the different process stages from the moment you take the picture until the photo is being printed on RA-4 paper (without giving too much away of the magic involved, of course)?

Tyson: After I take the photo until it is printed is really easy; I color balance the photos and then send them to my printer. There isn’t a lot of magic involved. I’m a purist at heart even though I choose to shoot digitally I still treat the camera like a film camera. I shoot and print full frame and I print as close to what was there as I can. I currently shoot with an old Canon xti and a 50mm 1.4.

tyson-2

HRT: What is it that you are looking for, when searching for textures? What are you favorite spots or locations?

Tyson: I look for a myriad of things, over the last ten years I’ve developed several languages to represent emotions, narrative and allegory through color composition and marks (texture). They are all highly personal and raw. When preparing to shoot for the day I’ll meditate on a single emotion or event and then keep that in my mind the whole time I’m walking. I’ve become so focused that I don’t see or hear people around me, I’m just observing every surface around me for the one holy moment that captures exactly what is in me.

HRT: What are the 3 most important things to take into account when taking texture photographs or photographs in general?

Tyson:

  1. Observation: If you don’t see it you can’t photograph it.
  2. Evolution: Build on your previous experience and use your successes and failures to inform your current work.
  3. Just do it: This is the hardest one, just getting up and doing it when you have a million other things going on. Make time to just go out and do it as often as you can.

tyson-3

HRT: I know that you think that the tools of a photographer are not nearly as important as his understanding of light and time. Could you elaborate a bit more on this thought?

Tyson: I think gear is usually a waste of money and time. The basics of photography can be learned in a couple days and gear can get in the way of understanding. It is only through a lifetime of practice that you’ll even come close to consistantly capturing those holy moments when the two dimensions of the photograph transcend even the reality of being there.

HRT: Nonetheless, I think the readership of HRT would be interested to hear what equipment you are using most of the times.

Tyson: My work is currently all shot with a 50mm 1.4 on a Canon xti body. I don’t use lights or any other gear (I don’t even use a camera strap), while I’m shooting for the texture series. In my studio I use two 400 and one 1600 Alien Bees strobes with various lighting tools: softbox, umbrellas, reflectors etc.

HRT: To conclude this interview, do you have some tips for aspiring photographers?

Learn your history. It will inform and inspire you long after you learn the mechanics of a camera. :)

The abovementioned Phoenix 21 series can be seen here!

You can find out more about Tyson on his personal website tysoncrosbie.com or his video blog Lying to Tell the Truth and if you want to connect with him, follow him on Twitter – @tysoncrosbie or befriend him on Flickr – tysoncrosbie.

Many thanks to Tyson for doing this interview! For me, it was a great experience and interesting to see how other photographers treat the subject “textures”. What do you guys think? Do you want to read more interviews in the future? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.

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©2010 High Resolution Textures. All Rights Reserved.

. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/interview-with-professional-photographer-tyson-crosbie/feed 4 5 awesome Flickr groups to fuel your texture inspiration http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/5-awesome-flickr-groups-to-fuel-your-texture-inspiration http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/5-awesome-flickr-groups-to-fuel-your-texture-inspiration#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:14:14 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=113 When trying to come up with new ideas for textures, I often turn to Flickr for inspiration. The vast amount of texture images on there is overwhelming and sometimes makes it hard to find the ones you are looking for. In order to make things easier for you, I created an overview with 5 groups, which offer a great variety of texture photos and have a solid user base, so that new content keeps flowing in on a regular basis.

Here is the list of flickr groups in no particular order. I included a few details like the number of members to date, number of photos and the number of images that may be added per day, week or month. Have fun browsing through all these wonderful images!

1. Textures for Layers

leopard-skinpicture taken by Chacal1233

Nr. of members: 9184
Nr. of photos: 9513
Upload limit: 3 photos per day
Visit the group

2. Textures only

fabricpicture taken by Nick & Whitney

Nr. of members: 1287
Nr. of photos: 4771
Upload limit: 3 photos per day
Visit the group

3. Textures

paintpicture taken by Fly on the wall

Nr. of members: 5740
Nr. of photos: 75132
Upload limit: none
Visit the group

4. Best Textures

waterdropspicture taken by Eric M. Martin

Nr. of members: 1820
Nr. of photos: 3657
Upload limit: none
Visit the group

5. textures and patterns

wavespicture taken by Mela Sogono

Nr. of members: 2085
Nr. of photos: 26518
Upload limit: 5 photos per day
Visit the group

Alright, this should keep you guys busy for while. I hope that you find some extraordinary photos amongst these groups. If you feel that I missed one or more flickr groups, please let me know in the comments and I will update the post. Enjoy!

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. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/5-awesome-flickr-groups-to-fuel-your-texture-inspiration/feed 5 High resolution texture round-up for february http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/high-resolution-texture-round-up-for-february http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/high-resolution-texture-round-up-for-february#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:40:22 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=74 Over the last 2-3 weeks, lots of different articles about and collections with various high resolution textures have been published all over the design community. In this post, I would like to present the most important ones, in order to make sure that you don’t miss any of the action. So let’s get right to it:

Launch of Seamlesstextures.net

seamlesstextures.net

Fellow texture blogger Caleb Kimbrough of LostandTaken.com has launched a new site, which entirely focuses on seamless textures, hence the name seamlesstextures.net. If you are looking for textures, which can right away be used for tiled (website) graphics, seamlesstextures.net is the place to go!

Ultimate Guide for Creating High Quality Textures

Ultimate Guide for Creating High Quality Textures

Caleb also wrote a great tutorial for DesignM.ag on how to create high quality textures and goes into great detail with regards to equipment, lighting, sharpness and post-processing. Check out the tutorial here!

30 free cardboard textures (DesignM.ag)

cardboard textures

DesignM.ag published a nice collection of 30 free hi-res cardboard textures. This post includes some of my textures, which I offered last week, but next to that, you can find a few other gems. Check out the collection here!

100 beautiful free textures (Smashing Magazine)

100 beautiful free textures

At the beginning of this month, Smashing Magazine offered a huge collection of hi-res texture images, including some categories, which are otherwise not so easy to find: wool, leather, denim, water or glass. Explore the entire collection here.

50 rusted metal textures (Webdesigner Depot)

50 rusted metal textures

What would be a texture round-up without the obligatory rust or grunge textures? One of the most popular texture categories currently is rusted metal, and Webdesigner Depot published a brilliant collection featuring some of the most colorful rust textures, I have come across. This is certainly a bookmark-worthy article, so go check it out here!

As you can see, february was a great month for all texture lovers. In case I missed one or more essential resources, please let me know in the comments and I will add it to this article. Now make your internet providers happy by downloading as many textures as possible!

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. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/high-resolution-texture-round-up-for-february/feed 0 Great collection of Vintage textures on Web Design Ledger http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/great-collection-of-vintage-textures-on-web-design-ledger http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/great-collection-of-vintage-textures-on-web-design-ledger#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:23:56 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=58 Web Design Ledger is a relatively young web design blog, which delivers high quality content with every post they publish. Their latest article features 30 brilliant vintage textures created by several artists on deviantart. There are lots of wallpaper, grunge and floral textures available, so head on over there in order to grab some great images!

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. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/great-collection-of-vintage-textures-on-web-design-ledger/feed 3 Great locations for taking texture photographs http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/great-locations-for-taking-texture-photographs http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/great-locations-for-taking-texture-photographs#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:57:15 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=33 Today, I would like to share a few locations, which I think are great for texture photography.

Natural textures

forest in Scotland
Picture taken by g.naharro

From personal experience, the most productive photography sessions I had so far, took place in the forest. Most of the times, you have a great variety of bark due to the diversity of the trees. Next to that, if you are in a humid area, there is a great chance of finding lots of moss and fern. Depending on where you are, you might find plenty of rocks and stones, too. And don’t forget the surface you are walking on – the ground itself can be used for some pretty textures, especially in combination with tree roots. Just try it!

Artificial textures

Hamburg harbor
Picture taken by mikk

The kinds of textures that are harder to find compared to natural ones, are rust, metal or plastic. In order to find these, you should try to locate industrialized areas, preferably abandoned ones, because then you probably don’t have to deal with closed gates and it should be easier to get inside the buildings as well. I haven’t been near one lately, but I guess a big harbor, like the one in Hamburg depicted above, can be a great place for shooting textures as well. Containers, ships and cranes, all of them provide a huge variety of metal and rust surfaces.

If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to post them in the comments.

In the near future, I will write a dedicated post about Urban textures, so stay tuned.

I hope that I could give you some nice ideas and that this article proves to be helpful when you are looking for great locations for texture photographs.

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©2010 High Resolution Textures. All Rights Reserved.

. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/great-locations-for-taking-texture-photographs/feed 2 Texture and pattern showcase on Smashing Magazine http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/texture-and-pattern-showcase-on-smashing-magazine http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/texture-and-pattern-showcase-on-smashing-magazine#comments Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:09:15 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=25 Famous Smashing Magazine published a huge inspirational post, which showcases loads of websites that use either patterns or textures as a background. And the best thing about it – highresolutiontextures.com has been included in the “wood” category! This is smashing news and such an honor.

Check out the article here!

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. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/texture-and-pattern-showcase-on-smashing-magazine/feed 2 Design inspiration: 3 more websites with excellent use of textures http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/3-more-websites-with-excellent-use-of-textures http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/3-more-websites-with-excellent-use-of-textures#comments Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:50:03 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=24 In order to mix it up a little, it is time for some more inspiration. The following websites illustrate, how one can achieve beautiful results in web design through the use of textures.

slabovia tv: it has a nice wooden background and contains some concrete and paper textures as well. It is hard to describe, what this website is about, so you have to see for yourself. If you want to kill some time, the Monster pig game can help you with that!


slabovia tv

decay of intent: this is the portfolio of Italian freelance graphic designer Alessandro Cammarota. He uses a grunge style concrete background on his website.


decay of intent

brainwash factory: design related blog of German freelance designer Ines Opifanti. I like the fabric background in combination with the well-crafted logo.


brainwash factory

In addition to the 3 handpicked websites above, here is a link to a post on designerside.com about 42 websites that make use of wood or grain textures.

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. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/3-more-websites-with-excellent-use-of-textures/feed 1 Feature: grunge paper texture tutorial at bittbox.com http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/grunge-paper-texture-tutorial http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/grunge-paper-texture-tutorial#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:31:58 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=19 One of my favorite resource websites bittbox.com has a great tutorial on how to enhance paper textures in order to create a unique grunge paper effect. Head on over to the tutorial. Next to that, the website has a great freebie section with lots of Illustrator and Photoshop brushes and a few more tutorials on how to create you own textures in Photoshop.

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. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/grunge-paper-texture-tutorial/feed 1 Vintage texture collection at Design Reviver http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/vintage-texture-collection-at-design-reviver http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/vintage-texture-collection-at-design-reviver#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:59:41 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=13 vintage textures

Henry Jones, the man behind Design Reviver posted a nice collection of vintage textures and photoshop brushes. Next to a great freebie section, Design Reviver also has a few tutorials covering different topics of web development.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to his blog and grab some freebies by clicking here!

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. ]]> http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/vintage-texture-collection-at-design-reviver/feed 1 Design inspiration: 5 websites with excellent use of textures http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/5-websites-with-excellent-use-of-textures http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/5-websites-with-excellent-use-of-textures#comments Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:00:05 +0000 Vincent http://www.highresolutiontextures.com/?p=11 In case you downloaded a few of my high resolution textures and you don’t know how to implement them in your designs, I would like to present you a small list of hand-picked websites, which all make superb use of various sorts of textures.

concrete textures


Elliot Jay Stocks’ portfolio
Elliot Jay Stocks portfolio


pikaboo multimedia design
pikaboo multimedia design

wood textures


Alex Buga webdesign
Alex Buga webdesign


the things we make
the things we make portfolio

fabric textures


nickstedt webdesign
nickstedt webdesign

get involved!

Now it is time for you to get involved and let me know what you think about the websites displayed above. Or you can share some of your personal favorites in the comment section as well.

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