Ambient Design Ltd.

Step 3: Age Editing.

The next steps are used to add some age to the cloth, which looks a bit young at the moment. First we'll add some age to the edges of the cloth.

Ctrl/Cmd Click the layer that was once rectangular.
Invert the selection by selecting Select > Inverse, or pressing Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + I
Add a new layer above the cloth layer.
Set the Foreground colour to a dark brown (Red 91, Green 62, Blue 0).
With the new layer selected, Select Edit > Fill to fill the selection with the brown.
Deselect the area by selecting Select > Deselect, or pressing Ctrl/Cmd + D.
Select Filter > Gaussian Blur, and apply a blur of 15 pixels.
Select Layer > Group With Previous to group the brown layer with the cloth layer.
Set the layer opacity of the brown layer to 80%.

[ Speed Tip: To group layers quickly, Alt/Option Click in the Layers Panel between the two layers, you'll see the cursor change if you hold down Alt/Option and move over the space between the layers. This groups the layer above with the layer below.]

Group With Previous makes the layer you are grouping use the alpha of the layer beneath. This means that the edge of the folded cloth will clip the brown and make sure it only appears inside the cloth itself. We now have darker edges around our cloth.

The next step is to give the cloth surface some more dirt over its entirety.

Add a new layer above the brown layer.

Select the entire layer by selecting Select > Select All or pressing Ctrl/Cmd + A.

Set the Foreground colour to the colour we used for the original rectangle (Red 255, Green 255, Blue 249).

Select Edit > Fill and fill with the Foreground colour.

Set the Background colour to a medium yello-brown (Red 121, Green 100, Blue 1).

Select Filter > Render > Clouds.

This creates a cloudy brown/off white pattern over your image. The cloudy pattern is rather faint, but we can use a quick trick to make it a bit more contrasty.

Now that you have applied clouds, you can re-apply it by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + F. However, if you press Ctrl/Cmd + Alt/Option + F you will get more contrast in the cloud pattern.

Apply a few times until you have a nice looking pattern with dark and light blotches.

Select Layer > Group With Previous to group this with the brown layer.
Set the opacity of the cloudy layer to 30%.

The cloudy layer is now grouped over the cloth layer, just as the brown layer was. But the image is still a bit faint, so we'll add an Adjustment Layer to increase the contrast slightly.

Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast

In the dialog that pops up, make sure 'Group With Previous Layer' is checked on and select OK.

Set the Brightness to -35, and the Contrast to +34.

This gives us a much sharper looking set of blotches and stains, and we're ready to go on to the final stage which is creating the thread pattern.

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