With all the stock-exchange sites available today you have a plethora of images to sift through and use to add some cool multifaceted texture effects to an image.

In this tutorial you’ll be taken through a variety of ways in which to use combinations of multiple Adjustment Layers to enhance and balance your composition’s well as a few simple techniques that will help you to quickly create an assortment of Colour Variations of your final image.

You can use any variation of images for this tutorial. These are the images I am working from:

Step 1. Open the images and select the image that will be the base for the whole piece. I am using the portrait of the woman.

Step 2. Isolate the areas you would like to focus on. I isolated the face using the pen tool, get the most accurate traces possible. Zoom in close if need be. Make each selection in its own layer and name it if that will help.

Step 3. Activate the next layer to be used, this will be the darkened ambient layer. I selected the clouds layer for this step. Select the Multiply Layer Mode and position it in the way you like. Experiment with the placement until you are happy. Now Ctrl-click on the Face layer to make a selection. Click on the Layer Mask icon in the palette. This will instantly apply a Layer Mask that displays the Cloud Multiply on the face only.

Step 4. Deselect the ‘link’ icon that joins the layer to its Layer Mask. This will allow you to move and alter the Cloud layer, while keeping its application zone restricted to the ‘face’ selection. Click on this Layer Mask in the Layer toolbar to edit it, and then use a large brush to remove the overlay from the eye, nose and mouth area.

Step 5. Activate the next image, dragon statue image, and apply the Layer Mode to Hard Light. Repeat the face Layer Mask technique to restrict the Hard Light to the face. Select a medium brush and remove some of the dragon statue from the face in the areas that need less, make sure you are working on the layer mask. Apply the same steps to the last texture to be applied, the rock detail. Use what ever Layer Mode you feel works best, I used a Layer Mode of Vivid Light and lowered the Opacity.

Step 6. Duplicate the untextured base Face layer and bring it to the forefront or top of the layers palette. Add a Layer Mask and hide the whole layer. Now brush around the edges of the chin and hairline to bring out the natural highlights and contours that may have been obscured by the underlying textures.

Step 7. Add a Movable Flare to the composition. To make that ,create a new layer, make a square selection and fill with black. Render a Lens Flare Filter>Render>Lens Flare in the centre of the square. Set this layer to Screen, you may have to erase some of the hard edge if it shows. You will now have a movable light source that can be placed anywhere on the composition and not fixed to one spot. Place this in the origin of the highlight area, wherever that may be. I placed some on the curve of the dragon statue piece and also on the head jewels. For some subtle effects apply the layer mode to Overlay for these flares.

Step 8. Apply a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer. This is the best way to build a dynamic color scheme from scratch. Experiment with the different values in each channel and observe the effects each has on the image. Also apply a Curves Adjustment Layer to bring out the depth of the piece.

Final: Apply a Color Balance layer to the whole piece. Tweak the Highlights towards yellow and the Shadows toward blue. Play with the curves again to get the right amount of depth in the image.

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