Exploring techniques old and new

I am in the process of examining different photographer's work's and styles. I particularly like the fantasy art style of portrait images shown below which show a combination of art and photography

Shown here are some images of various photographers taken of the website "Master Photographers Association" This is a particular style that I like and will be experimenting with over the next couple of months Portraits are bended together with different textures using various layers using the sosftware Photoshop

These images mainly consist of portraits that are blended together with various textures which are then darkened using a various vignetting layers

I will be shooting some new portraits shortly and will be blending them with various textures I have photographed over the last couple of months. Shown below are some of my textures that I may be using , I photogrphed lot of these textures on recent phtogrphy trips to Lacock Abbey near Bath and Tutbury castle some local historic ruins situated about 6 miles from Burton

I have always been an avid lover of Photoshop and have played around with textures and blending modes for years. Shown below are some of my  manipulated images which show show various blends and textures using different layers that I have created in Photoshop   

This image has 3 elements applied to it, a base image which I have de-saturated, various softening layers applied and a soft Grunge texture added to give an old dirty type of effect 

This image shows a simple blend of a recent seascape I took on holiday combined with a stone wall "grunge"texture taken from an image from a wall at Tutbury Castle a local historical ruin that I visited in the summer

I blended the image above of a friend of mine together with a texture of ice photographed on my car windscreen using various layers,blends and masks

Shown here is a base image with just one texture added, I blended the images together using layers, masks and blending in Photoshop. I find the possibilities are endless of what can be achieved it's all down creativity and being inspired by other photographers work's

This image has mutiple layers blended together to produce a soft focus type of feel

I hope to take blending with textures to a higher level over the next few months a technique that I find very fascinating and which I am passionate about. This technique requires creativity along with a good knowledge of using Photoshop which I feel I posses but would now like to take these elements to the next level