Photoshop Tutorial: Picture Over Text

Pictures over text is an amazing thing I learned how to do very 

easily in Photoshop a few years ago and I've loved it ever since!

 It is so simple - I hope you guys use this process as much as I do once you see how quick it is!

TUTORIAL:

1) Open a blank Photoshop Document whatever dimensions you would like (I did 8x10 and 300 DPI). Create a text layer with whatever wording you would like. You can use whatever font you like, however, the bolder the font the better the effect. 

2) Open up whatever image file you would like placed over the text. I simply did a Google search of "Floral Pattern" and found this one that I loved. If you are getting your image from Google make sure the image is large enough so you won't have a pixelated image over your text (although in some cases that might look kind of cool). Next, click Select > All

3) With the image selected, click Edit > Copy

4) Now go back to your document with the text and click Layer > New > Layer...

5) Click "Ok"

6) With the new blank layer selected, click Edit > Paste

7) Now, while holding down the ALT key (I use a Mac, so on a Mac it is the key that says "Option" and "alt" on it), click on the line right in between the text layer and your picture layer (it is where the red arrow above is pointing). 

7.5) Now your picture layer should be "linked" to the text layer. See the bent arrow pointing down to the text layer from the picture layer?

8) And TA DA! You have the picture only visible where your text is! Didn't I tell you it was easy? You can also do the same effect over shapes - not just text. Have you ever downloaded a blog photo template that had layers that said "Place your image here"? This uses the same method. In blog photo templates the photos are only visible where the shapes are - On here the photo is only visible where the text is. 

Now go have fun trying it out! :)

It's great for creating really cool blog headers!

Here is the blog header I used for my personal Tumblr blog using this same process:

Here's another example I made: