How to Add Depth & Dimension With a Background Texture
Sometimes, all it takes to add dimension and intrigue to your images is a little texture. That’s why BeFunky has an entire collection of Textures for adding to your photography in a single click! Whether you are looking to add bokeh, light leaks, brushstrokes, or even distressed textures like scratches, BeFunky has you fully equipped to push your photos to the next level and add in some magical elements!
But what if instead of applying texture to the entire image, you’d rather add it to only the background and make your subject stand out? The great news is, now you can! BeFunky’s A.I. technology will automatically detect and isolate the subject of your photos, allowing you to create textured backgrounds for your portraits, pet photos, product photography, and more – all in a single click!
Background Texture Inspiration
Each of the textures in our Photo Editor comes with its own settings menu, which means you’ve got tons of options for customizing the way it looks on your image. Here are our favorite Texture effects for your inspiration. And we’ll show you how to create your own textured background in the next section!
Add Light Effects to Backgrounds
The Textures tab is home to some brilliant light effects like Light Leaks and Light Trails. Adding these light effects to your backgrounds is an easy way to add some interest and flair to your photos.
Textures that incorporate light tend to warm up your photos, offering an ethereal and softened look to them. They're perfect for portrait photography.
Create Beautiful Bokeh
Bokeh is a texture that’s composed of clustered, diffused lights. It’s been a popular photography aesthetic for years and for good reason, as it adds some serious magic to your photos.
In photography, bokeh can happen when you focus on your subject and blur light sources in the background or use a dedicated Bokeh lens. The cool thing is, you can get this look in post-process by creating a texture for your background with BeFunky's Bokeh options.
Make Backgrounds Look Distressed
Adding our distressed textures (like Grunge and Scratches) to your image background can really add interest and change the feel of your image in an instant. Just look at how it amplifies this solid-colored background.
Whether you are going for a creepy distressed vibe or a pretty patterned vibe, these effects are sure to twist your images into masterpieces.
Create Crafty Image Backgrounds
When you want to give your image a crafty look without applying an effect to the entire image, adding textures from the Paint, Paper, and Fabric categories is a great idea! Think brushstroke backgrounds, crinkly paper, burlap textures, and more.
Want to get ultra-creative? You can even layer your textures on top of one another to create dimension, rather than just using one at a time.
How to Create Textured Backgrounds in BeFunky
Now that you've gotten a taste of our Textures suite, let's get started with the tutorial. Adding background texture is easiest on an image with an easy-to-isolate subject. This tutorial will demonstrate how to boost the dynamic imagery in an image already depicting models in motion by using the Light Trails and Bokeh effects.
Step 1: Choose a Photo
Click here for access to the Photo Editor. Choose a photo from your Image Manager, upload one from your computer, or browse our Stock Image Library for inspiration.
Step 2: Choose a Texture
Head to the Textures tab to browse all available textures groups. Each group offers variations that can be mixed and matched. In this tutorial, we'll be using Light Trails and then repeating the process with a Bokeh effect.
Light Trails 5 is a good option for enhancing dynamic imagery with streaks of multi-colored lights. Light Trails 5 will make the lower model stand out more from the background. When adding the Bokeh effect, Bokeh 4 uses colors compatible with Light Trails 5. The texture lays over the image by default, so we will select the Settings button to modify the layer.
Step 3: Isolate Your Subject
To move the texture to the background, we will use the Isolate Subject button, found in the Erase tab, to automatically remove any texture covering the subject. Click Apply to accept the changes.
Now, you can continue to layer more textures in the background. For this example, we decided to add a Bokeh effect to convey even more movement in the background.
Step 4: Save Your Work
When your image is successfully enhanced, it's time to save it by clicking on the Save button, located at the top of the canvas. You can choose to save it as a project to return to later, to your computer, one of your social channels, and more!
Final Results
Light up your stills with textures! Light Trails, Bokeh, and more are available to be used as backgrounds. Head to the Textures section of the Photo Editor to make your own!
