Collaging in Photoshop

1. I started with a new document at 300 X 200 pixels, RGB and 72 dpi. The size doesn't matter really.

Filter>add noise. Use the settings here.

2. Let's begin to form the base for our grain

Filter>Blur>motion blur.

3. OK now we need to make it a bit wavy like real wood.

Filters>distort>wave

Its important to lower the scale so the the waves aren't too overdone.

4. Now to bring out the grain.

Filter>sharpen>unsharp mask

Crank that puppy all the way up.

Set the radius at 2.9

5. Ctrl/Cmd+U opens our good old Hue/Saturation

Hit colorize set the hue for 22 and saturation for 53 and to get a more authentic wood color pull the lightness a bit to the dark side. -19

Press OK

6. Not bad huh?

This is where most other tutorials finish. You could stop here or go for the extra touch of realism

Set the feather to 10 in the top tool bar in Ps 6. (Or in older versions you will have to apply selection>feather after the selection is made) make a selection with the rectangular marquee tool.

7. Apply the wave filter again, make the adjustments as shown here

Press OK or enter/return

8. See the nice random texture?

Lets do it again. Make a selection as before, but this time on the bottom of the wood.

9. Now go to the filters menu, you will see the last applied filter is still there, click on it or just go Ctrl/cmd+F to reapply the wave filter.

10. There doesn't that look so much more realistic?

I hope you had fun with this and I'm sure you'll find it useful.