I wish you good luck, while exploring and learning so you could spice up your own photos, impress friends and evolve your design skills! This list is a little bit shorter than other ones, but I thought I better focus on quality than quantity, because we already have many, many useless list tutorial articles around here repeating same stuff over and over again.

1. Water effect photo montage tutorial

Outstanding tutorial, you really must try this one and understand how to use this effect, giving you unlimited opportunities to express yourself.

2. How to Create a Sparkling Fantasy Photo Manipulation

In this tutorial, we’re going to create a photo manipulation using different techniques. We’ll be adjusting each layer and element to make a compact final image. We’ll be using multiple photos and a handful of effects to create this work. Let’s get started!

3. Dance Photo Manipulation Part 1, Part2

I love this one, you can really learn several advanced techniques from this two part tutorial, amazing advanced level tutorial!

4. Create dynamic distortion effects

Extend feel of dynamics and create work, you cannot take eyes of! Really advanced techniques!

5. How to Create Super-Malleable Effects with Colorful Lines

Very trendy tutorial, teaching you how to create beautiful artwork out of almost nothing!

6. Create a Sleek Illustration that Fades from Line Art to Color

Combine reality with line art in beautiful poster and learn advanced techniques from this high quality tutorial!

7. How to Turn Humdrum Photos into Cinematic Portraits

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to transform usual photo into regular, humdrum portrait, even faking HDR effects a little bit.

8. The RoboHorse Turn Ordinary Animal to a Robot

In this tutorial I will show you with an example of horse how to turn an ordinary animal to a robot.

9. Design a Colorful Illustration Using Patterns and Shapes

This is really beautiful tutorial using patterns,coloring and 3D shapes to gain outstanding effect! Tutorial is easy to create and modify, so you should really enjoy it!

10. Awesome Snowboard Poster Tutorial

Simple tutorial, showing how to gain great effects using just few brushes and basic Photoshop skills.

11. Create a Funky Perspective of a Model Riding Digital Volume

Learn how to create photo manipulation using perspective achieving depth and motion in artwork. Easy to follow up – enjoy!

12. How to Create a Steampunk Style Illustration in Photoshop

Learn through simple steps how to montage many different elements in one picture and make it look really good with lightning, shadows and image grading.

13. Make your image look awesome with a few light effects

For every beginner – advance effects!

14. How To Create A Vibrant Image Using Photoshop

Explore how to add dynamics, energy to photo turning it into great artwork! Excellent learning piece!

15. Beautiful Lady Effect Photoshop Tutorial

Colorize and extend this great photo to look it even more beautiful and artistic!

16. Electrifying Energy Beam Photoshop Tutorial

Great and very easy to archieve effect I really love to use in many works I create as well!

17. Tutorial: Use lighting effects to make photos sparkle

Add some simple brushes,lightning and color to make your photo stand out!

18. Dazzling Dance Photo Manipulation Tutorial

Detailed and really well explained Photoshop tutorial, which will learn how to combine several photos, add special effects and get outstanding results!

19. Create A Glowing Extreme Wallpaper in Photoshop

In this tutorial, you’ll create a complex glowing wallpaper using Photoshop, which is really easy to follow up.

20. Stylish Light Effect in Photoshop

Yet one more stylish image effect achieved playing with blending modes and adjustment layers.

21. Super Fast – Speed Lighting Effect Tutorial

Add speed of light in your works!

22. How to Create an Abstract Photo Manipulation

Nasty photo manipulation, which can be used in really various ways. Lots of useful techniques included in this tutorial!

23. Fashion Shot Photo Manipulation Tutorial

Enhance your photos with simple effects and get unbelievable effects!

24. Make Photos More Suggestive Tutorial

Subtle effects, great outcome, easy to follow up steps! Enjoy!

25. Add Another Dimension Photo Effects Tutorial

Use brushes and colors to spice up your photos to really stand out!

26. The Making of Mystic Tutorial

In this tutorial Nik Ainley walks us through the process of making a spectacular image. Completely outstanding!

27. Expressive lighting effects tutorial

Learn how to combine several lightning techniques to achieve stunning outcome!

28. Displacement effects tutorial

You’ll learn here how to use several filters and techniques to show you the way how to experiment, use lightning effects and recreate those effects in your own style.

29. Seriously Cool Photoshop Explosion Effect Tutorial

Very cool explosion effect tutorial, teaching how to break apart a body, add lightning and glow!

30. Create a Powerful Mental Wave Explosion Effect

Crazy and very powerful work. This tutorial will teach you how to combine photos and filters to produce wave explosion effect.

You must be thinking – man..105 artworks, is this guy completely crazy? Well, I must admit I went crazy, but I couldn’t not feature those works here, you must see how amazing this art is if you haven’t seen something like that before! At least I have crazy inspiration now to put something like this together myself – how about you?

One more thing, if you want to see even more of these kind photo manipulation artworks, check out my Deviantart profile favorites #photomanipulation folder, I’ll be updating this one regularly! The same is about web and wordpress theme layouts – I am putting the best works in my favorites daily and sometimes creating new works myself as well! Check out my DeviantArt profile if you are interested, guys and enjoy this article!

1. Drangue by barrena

2. Photo manipulation by GerCasey

3. Young Rocker by kybel

4. Cosmos. by TOYBOX-plaza

5. Right Round by Saibz

6. Volumize by GrungeTV

7. Pouring Paint by Dean-Site

8. You Forget it in People by RobShields

9. Saint by poisonvectors

10. Good day by poisonvectors

11. Lady Di by svpermchine

12. Lustre.v2 by sk8terpunk10

13. Silent Movie by Saibz

14. Ma Babe Vol. 2 by hicky2

15. Glow Dancer by iluud

16. My Heart Still Burns by AimhaDesign

17. Kick Up by Resetblue

18. Antimatter by zocafx

19. Juste la Dance by zocafx

20. Cartoonoportation by myaki-ru

21. Mr. Skeched Pants by MethMan

22. ShineOn by craZy18gurl

23. B A L L E T by nheonheo

24. Yeah by szc

25. Butterfly by poisonvectors

26. cutHERE. by Espador

27. Fresh by h2ogd

28. Muse by kuschelirmel

29. Displacement study by rosalindharrison

30. Karate lessons by anthony-g

31. .chill. by chadsharpe

32. Sensation by AirDesign06

33. After School Special by Espador

34. 30. by Espador

35. Pulsar by poisonvectors

36. FERVOUR by videa

37. MECHANICS by mkore

38. Like A Star by Phektion

39. Lost in colour by anthony-g

40. Ma Babe Vol. 4 by hicky2

41. Candy by poisonvectors

42. Design collage by wilson-naraku

43. Dancing Lotus by d4m

44. SOUL of the CITY by FreshIsrael

45. Dancehall Queen by BLACC360

46. Break.IT by Espador

47. Forever Heavy by RobShields

48. Growing Oil by kaethor

49. GHOST.88 by Espador

50. Incredible v2.0 by Script0s

51. Illusion by Frelon

52. Present yourself vol.2 by queedo

53. Liquify by mnmlst

54. United Colors by kaneda99

55. It’s My Own Cheating Heart by RobShields

56. Mecano by poisonvectors

57. Francis by poisonvectors

58. KARLA by poisonvectors

59. A new start by poisonvectors

60. Blue and Pink by sunsE

61. Stay alive by inphi

62. Passio by videa

63. Of the room by kaethor

64. Natural Growth by motive8

65. To Heaven by DouglasEltz

66. Move It by craZy18gurl

67. Colour Me Brightly by ryman

68. My.Chaos. by Espador

69. Dragon Within by inphi

70. Programata Magazine by JaxeNL

71. Hummingbird by D-e-v-i

72. Ev2ke by starfantazy

73. Tony Jaa by MomentumGFX

74. Blink. by Espador

75. Rapture by craZy18gurl

76. Fantasy boy by rosalindharrison

77. Behind Verdis Thoughts by Mantrastic

78. Lisa by moonmomma

79. Cenetric Jerene by Mantrastic

80. Colorful nature sounds by Cimoetz

81. Believe by suprsonic

82. Krump It by craZy18gurl

83. Bitch by d4m

84. Twinkle by starfantazy

85. Contra Band by starfantazy

86. Rainbow Goddess by ih8m0r0nz

87. Come Alive by d4m

88. Vibe by inphi

89. Fear the Music by wirestyle

90. Fired Up by FrozenStarRo

91. Splash by atmosphair3

92. Granny Delicious by wirestyle

93. Burst by wirestyle

94. Overdose Art by JaxeNL

95. Feel the music by wirestyle

96. Hang Em High by FreshIsrael

97. Heart Of A Dragon by videa

98. Flower Power by m4gik

99. Purple Lighting by barrena

100. bb by poisonvectors

101. Sounds fake by poisonvectors

102. FMGT II by svpermchine

103. FMGT III - by svpermchine

104. iPod-Play Your Music by svpermchine

105. Hammer by poisonvectors

I hope you’ll enjoy this tutorial as I did and feel free to ask questions if you don’t understand something! Let’s get to work!Final Outcome:

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe photoshop
• Version: CS3
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 4 hours

Preparation

Things we’re going to use:

• Venice street by ashesmakebeauty
• Cracked earth texture by cgtextures.com
• Akgae texture by FantasyStock
• Moss texture by cgtextures.com
• Grunge texture by stuckdumb
• Concrete texture by FantasyStock
• Wall texture by shadowh3
• Pond image by TimeWizardStock
• Pond texture by cgtextures.com
• Sky by Skybase
• Grass brushes by Archeleron
• Grass texture by cgtextures.com
• Ivy and tendril brushes by midnightstouch
• Dust brushes by AeneaKeats
• Light beam brushes by redheadstock

Step 1 – Removing all the signs of life

Open up the Venice street image in blank document and save it with different name. First thing we see is that there are many people in picture which we have to remove. Duplicate the original background layer and name it “Background”. Use the Clone Stamp Tool (S) and Brush Tool (B) to remove people and other details from the picture. Use soft brush around 5-15 pixels. Because we’re going to apply some textures for the street and buildings you don’t have to be so precise. Something like this will work just fine:

Step 2 – Applying textures to street

Open up Image 1 from Cracked earth texture. Go to Select > All to select canvas. Next go to Edit > Copy. Open up Psd with Venice street in it, create new layer and go to Filter > Vanishing point. Apply the texture to the street. If you don’t know how to use Vanishing Point I recommend to read Getting to Grips with the Vanishing Point Filter tutorial. Texture doesn’t have to be perfect. Use Clone Stamp Tool (S) to make it fit the street. Then apply the texture layer Layer Mask and using 5-10 pixel hard brush paint over the needless areas. Finally set the layer to Multiply. Leave Opacity to 100%. Name this layer “Cracked earth”.

Open up Algae texture and place it above cracked earth texture. This time I’m not gonna use Vanishing Point because it ruined whole image. Resize texture using Free Transform (Ctrl+T), dublicate it about 10 times so filling the whole street area. Then merge these layers using Ctrl+E. Name this layer “Algae texture” Now we’re going to do one interesting thing for lazy people just like me. Remember that we applied layer mask to previous texture and made it fit the street perfectly? So as we don’t want to do it again let’s create Clipping Mask. To do that make sure that you have “Algae texture” layer above “Cracked earth” layer. Then click the right mouse button on “Algae texture” layer and select Create Clipping Mask. For final touches set the layer to Multiply, leave Opacity on 100% and clean up ugly spots using Clone Stamp Tool (S) with large soft brush.

Step 3 – Cutting out buildings

Extract the building out of background. That will improve texture adding to buildings. I prefer Pen Tool (P), but you can use whatever you want. Try to not include TV antennas or flags. Try to cut out the
top of the buildings carefully, but at the button follow your texture path. The bottom part will not be so smooth and precise, but that’s alright. Name the cutout “Building cutout”.

Step 4 – Applying textures to buildings

Open up Image 1 from Moss texture and place it above “Building cutout” layer. Resize texture using Free Transform (Ctrl+T) and dublicate it couple times. Move these layers on the middle and right side buildings. Leave left side clear. Then using Ctrl+E merge all dublicated layers into one. Again make this layer as a Clipping Mask to the “Building cutout” layer. You can read about setting up Clipping mask in Step 2. As we can see there are some white areas because we didn’t cut out buildings so precisely. That’s ok. Select Clone Stamp Tool (S), set Sample to All Layers and using small soft brush clone these white areas. Finally set the layer to Multiply, Opacity 85% and name it “Moss texture”.

Open up Grunge texture and place it above “Moss texture” layer. Resize it using Free Trasnform (Ctrl+T) and dublicate couple times. Merge these layers using Ctrl+E. Set this layer as a Clipping Mask of “Moss texture”.

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation > Check “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” and set the following settings:

Do the same thing with Curves:

Finaly set layer to Overlay and set Opacity to 50%. Name layer “Grunge texture”.

Now let’s apply some textures to building on the left side. Open up Concrete texture and using Vanishing point apply the texture. Place the layer above “Grunge texture’s” Curves layer and make Clipping Mask. Set it to Overlay. Set Opacity to 70%. If it’s neccesery use Dodge Tool (O) and Burn Tool (O) to make shadows or highlights. Name layer “Concrete texture”.

Using the same methods apply Image 1 from Moss texture and Wall texture. Again if neccesery use Dodge Tool (O) and Burn Tool (O). Name these layers “Moss texture” and “Wall texture”. Set “Moss texture” to Multiply and 90% Opacity, and “Wall texture” to Soft Light and 75% Opacity.

Step 5 – Creating water

Let’s add some water to our road. As you know water is always horizontal, but it also circumfuse objects like buildings and so. Here’s an example of wrong and right water drawing.

As you can see water doesn’t go just horizontal. It circumfulses buildings. Chechk out columns and other similar prominences. If object is closer, draw the water little bit lower. If object is further, draw the water little bit higher. In sum that’s kinda all. I’m not an expert, but with those simple rules you should be able to draw something believable and good looking. So let’s begin. We don’t want to create a lots of water like it’s in example. We just want to make something similar like swamp. So the water won’t be very deep and blue. It will be very shallow and dirty. Water is always with solid edges, so for selection you should use Pen Tool (P) or Polygonal Lasso Tool (L). Draw the selection and create a new Group. Go to Layer > New > Group and name it “Water”. Then add Layer Mask to this Group. If you did everything right, you should have something like this now:

Then create a new layer into this group and fill it with #46747b. Set layer to Overlay. Leave Opacity to 100%. Create a new layer and fill it with #47897c. Set it to Color and Opacity to 25%. Open up Pond image and place it above both color layers. Set it to Overlay and set Opacity to 45%. Open up Image 1 fromPond texture and using Vanishing point apply the texture. Place layer above “Pond image”. Set it to Soft Light and Opacity to 75%. Name layer “Pond texture”.

Step 6 – Adding details

Let’s add some better looking sky. Download Sky, place it under the “Building cutout” layer. Delete the sky on the water and try to place them as shown below:

Let’s add some grass to our buildings. Download Grass brushes, select green color on color picker and carefully brush on the windows and other similar areas. Name this layer “Grass”.

Then open up Image 1 from Grass texture, resize it (Ctrl+T), dublicate couple times, merge layers together (Ctrl+E) and set as Clipping Mask for “Grass” layer. Set it to Overlay and leave Opacity to 100%. Name this layer “Grass texture”.

Add Hue/Saturation for “Grass texture”.

Then download Ivy and tendril brushes and make the same effect as you did with grass. Work in zoomed in area so you can apply brushes precisely. Don’t be scared to overplay, because in picture zoomed out the ivy won’t be very visible. If it’s neccesery use Burn Tool (O) or Curves.

Now let’s remove shadow from the road and the reflection from the windows. Use Burn Tool (O) and Dodge Tool (O) with large soft brush with exposure about 20%. For removing shadow you must select “Background” layer and for the reflections “Building cutout” layer.

Let’s add some smoke to our picture. Download Dust brushes, create a new layer, select color similar #e1eec7 and start brushing. Brush around water and at the bottom of picture. Set layer Opacity to around 15%. Name this layer “Dust”.

Now we’re almost done. For better loneliness effect let’s add some light beams. Download Light beam brushes, create a new layer, select color #fbffd2 and try to place brush as shown below:

Then find “Building cutout” layer and click on it while holding Ctrl. That will load building selection. Then select Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and set it’s mode to Substract From Selection. Draw a square along building edge on left side so the selection remains like this:

Then select the layer with sun beam in it and hit Delete. Use Eraser Tool (E) with large, soft brush to make sun beam with soft edges. Set layer opacity to 25% and name it “Sun beams”.

Step 7 – Color effects

Using Layer > New Adjustment Layer command apply following color effects: (On the images there is blending mode and opacity)

Conclusion

For the final effect let’s apply some sharpen. Before doing that chechk out if everything’s alright. If neccesery use Dodge Tool (O), Burn Tool (O), Eraser Tool (E) in some layers. To make sharpen create a new layer and go to Image > Apply Image. Then go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp mask and use the settings below:

I also used Curves:

And we’re done. I hope you learned something new and you’re pleased with the tutorial.