I had some free time and energy to burn, so I figured I would take what I know about displacement maps and the use of displacement maps to apply texture to an object, put them in to this tut and teach you, the general worth1000 viewing public, about displacement maps through general information and practical applicationThe displacement map filter in photoshop warps and distorts images by moving pixels according to the guidelines set out by a predefined "map." You can find the displacement map filter under filter>distort>displaceIf you've never used them before, displacement maps probably seem like a complicated and foreign concept. However, they're actually very simple if you think about them in terms of black and white. Like masking, black and white are the basis of a proper displacement map. Black moves pixels to the right and/or down. White moved pixels left and/or up.Once you understand how black and white effect displaced images, then you can start thinking about them in terms of being shades of grey. The shades of grey, depending on what end of the value scale they're on, will mimic that of black and white in a displacement map, only to a lesser degree. Fifty percent (mid grey) makes absolutely no difference on the distortion of the image. Below is an example of how the different values effect a displaced image with a simple value map over a candid photo: