Creating a Realistic Stone Texture

This tutorial will show how we can create a realistic-looking 3D stone texture, which we will be able to engrave text into.

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We will start with a white background and then add a new layer and fill with 50% Gray (Edit > Fill, use 50% Gray).
Next, we will goto Filter > Noise > Add Noise, and choose 20%, Guassian, Monochromatic. Then we want Filter > Render > Lighting Effects, and settings similar to the ones illustrated below.

This gives the texture a 3D look to it. The next thing we want to do is create a new layer and goto Filter > Brush Strokes > Spatter. We can use the default settings of Radius 10 and Smoothness of 5. Next we want to create a new layer and fill with 50% Gray again. Then make sure our colors are reset to Black and White (press D), then goto Filter > Render > Clouds.
Now change this layer's blending mode to Multiply and the opacity to 75%, then merge it down (Ctrl+E).

At this point, if the image looks too dark, we can adjust it by going to Image > Adjustments > Levels, and modifying the sliders. We can also add color to the stone if we wanted by going to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, making sure Colorize is selected and using the sliders.
Now we will add some depth to the stone by opening up the layer styles and choosing Bevel and Emboss. We will use a depth of around 450, size of around 30, and soften of somewhere around 15. Experiment for the best results. We also want to change the Highlight to Color Dodge and the Shadow to Color Burn. You may also want to change with their opacity, depending on your stone.

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Next, we will add a layer mask (Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All). We can now choose a white brush and paint on the mask where we want the stone to show up, and define its shape. Once we have done this we can add a Drop Shadow to the stone layer through the Layer Styles. The stone should look something like this, or whatever shape you choose:

To make the stone more imperfect, we can use a smaller brush with a soft edge and opacity at around 10% to paint black onto the stone on its mask. This will create soft shadows on the stone to give the effect of more contours. Also, we can create a layer beneath the stone filled with black, that is just the shape of the stone itself. It may look something like this:

Finally, to engrave some text into the stone we can create a text layer and position it where we want on the stone. Then open up the Layer Styles of the text and choose Bevel and Emboss. The specific settings may differ on yours, depending on numerous factors, so try different settings. In this example I used Emboss, Smooth, 100%, Down, 5px Size and 0 Soften. I used Color Dodge for the Highlight and Multiply for the Shadow. Then, with the text layer selected, we goto Layer > Create Clipping Mask. This will make the text layer inherit the mask of the stone. We end up with the following:

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