I got bored the other day and decided to read some tutorials for photoshop.  One was on photo-manipulation.  So I decided to try my hand at it and these were the results...

Original: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/l/p/pl/plethr/1215387_61391407.jpg

Original: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/l/lu/lusi/1042481_at_the_bottom.jpg

Original: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/c/c-/c-louise/867275_alone.jpg

Original: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/s/st/statianzo/800967_underneath.jpg

Original: http://www.multimedia-stock.com/repos/photos/ms_00006246_big_thumb.jpg

What can I say...I was having fun, lol.  I now have a whole series of....angels? fairies?  some sort of winged beings, lol.

Basically, I isolated the subject from the background...in one, she was on a staircase and I wanted to include that so I isolated it too. I made everything black and white then I used the burn tool to add shadow and the 'pooling' darkness around the subjects and to darken the highlights of the backgrounds I used.   Once satisfied, I placed another background over the whole picture and made the layer type "overlay" so it basically just added texture to the picutre.

All the wings are brushes.

as are the cracks on the first subject.

all photos were stock photos.

I love those Brianne - I could see that in a gallery - they really bring you in to study them!  

Thanks :-) 

They kept me busy the other day.  It was actually pretty fun to do.

Here's another. I actually used two photos this time instead of a photo and a background. Not quite as dark in feel as the others, lol

Not sure I like it as good...I like the darker feeling ones better, lol

EDIT:

here's a revamped version...I tried to make it feel older...like it's been carried around in someone's wallet for years and years, lol.

I like the light one best I think... even though it is lighter, it is a little more haunting in a sense!! I need to sit down and re-read what you did so I can test it out! These are amazing! (ps where do you get all your brushes?)

Emmy, I get most from deviantart.com.  There are some amazing talents on there.  I also have a few other sites I go to, or if I'm looking for something in particular, I google "_____ photoshop brush"

http://sideduck.blogspot.com/  This is another that is a great resource for free brushes.

http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes 

http://www.brushking.eu/

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tools/photoshop-brushes/high-resolution-brushes.html

http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/psbrushes/

Thanks for sharing those! I am going to be on photoshop all night now! (And I am not complaining!)

LOL, I'm like that sometimes too.  Esp. when I learn something new! 

Brianne thanks so much for posting this!!!! I just got adobe photoshop elements 8 and have been dying to play with it more:) I have lightroom and this does so much more!

I gave it a try, this took about 30 mins including finding the angel brushes and texture:)

I found the angel brushes on:

http://www.obsidiandawn.com/fairy-wings-photoshop-gimp-brushes

Dani, That's awesome! Aren't they fun??  I was hooked after the first one, lol. 

I forgot about obsidiandawn.com!  I'll have to bookmark it before I forget again, lol.