Create Unique Abstract Photo Manipulation in Photoshop with Human, Rock and City Stocks

In this Photoshop tutorial, I will show you the methods I used to create unique abstract photo manipulation by mixing rock and city stock images in Photoshop. We will combine 3 objects: human, rock and city into one manipulation and form a unique looking digital art. We will primarily use the adjustment layers tool, layer blending modes and various filter to achieve this manipulation.

This is an immediate level tutorial and some steps can be a little tricky, have a try!

Note: The Photoshop tutorial is done in CS6 – therefore some screenshot may have slighting different layout as in the earlier version. Some brushes are exclusive to Photoshop CS6.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Model – by Anikathropoloustock

Rock

City

Grunge Brush Set (Pick a few from the list)

Debris Brush Set

Step 1

Create a new document sized 780px * 1000px with white background. Grab the Gradient Fill tool to fill the background with the following gradients: (Set the Gradient Fill tool to use Radial Fill)

Load the model image into Photoshop and cut out the model, paste it to the position as shown below: (Use the Free Transform tool to resize this layer to a smaller scale)

Grab the eraser tool to tidy up the edges of the model:

Add the following 3 adjustment layers as clipping masks to this model layer:

Black and White

On this black and white adjustment layer, use a soft eraser tool on its layer mask to reveal some colors on the model the facial area:

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Use a grunge brush set, paint some grunge texture below the model layer:

Step 2

We will work on the rock texture in this step. Load the rock image into Photoshop and select the following piece from the image:

Copy and paste the selection over to our image and place the layer below the model layer, in the position shown below:

Use the chalk brush as eraser, remove the following portions from the rock layer and tidy up the edge:

Add the following 3 adjustment layer as clipping masks to this rock layer:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

and you will have the following effect so far:

Use the debris brush you downloaded to paint some small particles into the space we removed in the previous step:

Put all these rock related layers into a layer group, duplicate this group a few times and move them to different positions as shown below: (Rotate and resize the duplicated groups as you see fit)

Step 3

We will work on the city building part of the manipulation in this step. Load the city image into Photoshop and select the following area:

Copy and paste the selection over to our document and place it into the position shown below: (resize the layer to a small scale to fit the size of the rock texture)

Use the chalk brush as eraser to blend the city edges into the rock texture:

Add the following 3 adjustment layers as clipping masks to this city layer:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Repeat the steps described above to add another lot of buildings to the top left position as shown below:

Paint some particles on top of the city building with the debris brushes for extra effect:

Step 4

We’re almost done. We will work on some final touches in this step. Add some cloud round the rock with a cloud brush or cloud filter, use the Warp tool to warp the cloud so it forms a circular shape:

Flatten the image, duplicate the background layer and apply the following Crystalize filter to the duplicated layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Of course we don’t want to the whole image to be pixelated, so let’s apply the following layer mask on this crystallized layer:

Use a soft brush to paint some highlights on the model’s forehead:

I further adjusted the colour balance of the image with the colour balance adjustment layer, and here is my final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy going through it and find it useful. Drop me a comment below if you have any question.

Till next time, have a great day!

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