Photo manipulation has always been one of the most enduring and popular genres of digital art, and also one of the most accessible. It is a great discipline to work within in order to learn the many ins and outs of Photoshop, as you work your way through the infinite combination of experiments you can use to augment and alter your own photography.
By blending multiple photographs together and adding your own lighting effects you can yield a range of wonderful and innovative results, which can transform a simple snapshot into a work of art.
Thanks to the myriad stock-exchange sites currently available on the internet, you now have a veritable smorgasbord of royalty-free images to use as you see fit. In this tutorial, you'll be shown step by step how to use stock imagery as multi-faceted textures, alternate backgrounds and even custom highlight Photoshop brushes.
In the following steps, you'll also be shown a variety of ways in which to use combinations of multiple Adjustment Layers to enhance and balance your composition, as well as a few simple techniques that will help you to quickly create an assortment of colour variations of your final image.
I have provided a set of royalty-free images on the disc for you to work with, but feel free to use your own if you'd prefer.
