In this tutorial, we will show you how to add a pattern or graphic to any surface in Photoshop for a truly realistic look. Let’s get started.
What You Need to Add a Pattern or Design to Any Surface
You’ll need two main image files to add a pattern or graphic to a surface. The main image will be your surface file. The secondary image will be the pattern or graphic that you want to place on the surface.
The main image file can be of any format, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, and so on. For the pattern or design, it’s more convenient to use a PNG or transparent file to place on your surface image. If you need a refresher, we explain the differences between PNG files and other image filetypes.
If you’d like to follow along, you can download the surface image from Pexels and the pattern from Unsplash.
Step 1: Prepare the Surface File
In the first step, we’ll desaturate the file and apply Gaussian Blur to the image. Then we’ll save the image as a PSD file for later use in the next step.
With the surface file loaded in Photoshop, click on the lock icon to unlock the Background layer. Press Ctrl + U. Change the Saturation to -100 to remove all colors. Then press OK. Our file is already black and white, but you should do this step if you want to remove the color. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius so it blurs out all the texture but leaves all the folds and shadow details visible. We went with 9. 0. Then press OK. Save the file as a PSD file and remember the name and location of where you saved it. Then close the file.
The file is now prepared for the next step. We show you several ways to open a PSD file without Photoshop.
Step 2: Apply the Pattern or Design to the Surface File
In this step, we’ll add our pattern file to the layer stack and apply it to the surface.
Open the original surface file once again (not the PSD file). Drop and drag the pattern into the layer stack. Press Ctrl + T for the Transform tool and use the handles to place the pattern over the surface file. Then click on the checkmark or press Enter. Go to Filter > Distort > Displace. Leave all the values at the default settings as shown. Simply press OK. A Choose a Displacement Map window will appear. Locate and select the PSD surface file that you previously saved and press Open. Double-click on the right side of the pattern layer to open the Layer Style menu. On the Underlying Layer slider in the Blend If section, press Alt + Left-click to split the slider. Move it until the shadow details are revealed and it looks like the pattern is adhering to the contours of the surface image. Then press OK.
This was an easy example of adding a pattern or graphic to a concrete surface. Here’s the finished result:
Apply a Pattern or Graphic to Any Surface: A Complex Example
Now, let’s apply the same floral pattern to a person’s shirt. The same two major steps apply. We’ll skip the first step of preparing the surface file because it’s exactly the same no matter what file you’re using. But let’s repeat the second step of adding the pattern to the surface because it gets more complex with the textures of a shirt.
Download the example image from Pexels if you’d like to follow along.
Select the shirt using the Quick Selection tool. You don’t have to select the entire shirt, only the area where you want the pattern to be applied. You can also use channels to make difficult selections in Photoshop. To save the selection, go to Select > Save Selection. You can rename it in the Name field. We went with “Shirt”. Press OK. Press Ctrl + D to deselect the shirt. Drop and drag your pattern layer into the layer stack. Press Ctrl + T for the Transform tool. Place the pattern where you’d like it to appear on the shirt. Click on the checkmark or press Enter. Click on the Channels tab. Press Ctrl + Left-click on the “Shirt” channel to activate the selection. Click back to the Layers tab. Click on the Add Layer Mask icon (rectangle with the circle in the middle) in the bottom-right corner of Photoshop. Double-click on the right side of the pattern layer to activate the Layer Style menu. On the Underlying Layer slider in the Blend If section, press Alt + Left-click to split the slider. Move it until the shadow details are revealed and it looks like the pattern is adhering to the contours of the surface image. Then press OK.
With the pattern applied to the woman’s shirt, we’re now ready to move on to the next steps and adjust the colors. We’ll do this by adding a Channel Mixer adjustment layer. The great thing about using adjustment layers is that you can always go back and change the colors since we’ll be working non-destructively.
Create a Channel Mixer adjustment layer. Clip it to the pattern layer: hold down Alt and left-click between the Channel Mixer layer and your pattern layer. From the Output Channel dropdown menu, adjust the sliders for the Red, Green, and Blue channels to achieve your desired color for the pattern. Add a blank layer at the top of the layer stack. This step is optional. Change the Blend Mode to Hard Light. Note that different blend modes may work better with different images. Press B for the Brush tool. Use the Color Picker to sample around the areas you want to fill in on the shirt. We cover how to use the Brush tool in Photoshop if you need a refresher.
Recoloring the shirt may yield varying results. If re-oloring the pixels on the shirt doesn’t work, go back to your pattern layer and readjust the Underlying Layer in the Blend If section. The results may not be exactly what you want, but it’s a quick way to fill in the color if coloring with the Brush tool isn’t working out.
Here are the changes we made to the Blend If section, the results are much cleaner:
We also show you how to change the color of an object in Photoshop if you want to switch things up.
Add a Pattern or Design to Any Surface in Photoshop
We’ve demonstrated how to add a pattern or design to both simple and complex surfaces in Photoshop. These techniques will greatly enhance your Photoshop abilities and allow you to add patterns, graphics, or even logos to any surface, seamlessly adhering to its textures and contours.
