In need of Photoshop tip: making fabric with a sheen

Hi, all -

I've gotten in the habit of making my own fabric lately. I use a lot of satin and velvet, and I've been looking for a way to create an overall shiny/satin "sheen" on the fabric. I'm probably being dense, but can anyone offer a tip or trick for doing this?

Thanks in advance

I made a quick and very dirty stab at this; thanks for the puzzle.

Start with the background color. Make a new layer and paint lines on it with a lighter version of the same color. Apply a "satin" effect to the lines layer and blend at 80% opacity.

Was this even close?

edit: this looked a lot better before squished to jpeg

Use the satin style with overlay as the blending mode. Make sure that the color of the "satin" is light enough or dark enough to create the contrast you want.


What you might want to do actually, is go to the Adobe Studio Exchange and download any of Christopher Potters styles as he makes this type of "satin" all of the time. Also Deviant Art would be another place you can download PS Styles.

Remember, satin texture is just gradients and light with reflectivity.

I've had good luck creating a sheen on fabric in Photoshop by using white airbrushing on a layer above the main fabric layer, at about 10% to 20% flow, and playing with the opacity of that layer. Sometimes it takes a couple layers to get the right look.

Place a piece if real fabric on the table next to you, with proper lighting, and use that as a guide for how such effects actually look.

sioxie is exactly right. she's so smart

If you havent gone to the Adobe Studio Exchange you are missing out. There are infinite amounts of styles you can use for all sorts of effects. and i even suggest downloading them just to study and see how it is done. one of the best ways to learn is obvserving other people's work.

Thanks, all. I've gotten a number of things off Photoshop Exchange before, but I"ll look for Christopher Potter's stuff. I'll also play around with some of the ideas you've so kindly posted.