Fantasy Portrait

Soft light works here to blend this duplicate image (which I've used the moVe tool to place it over and a little under off to the right). You could also just lower the opacity.

Here I've got the additional layer from the same photo shoot (different image) on pin light (for now) and I've created a layer mask on the dragon icon. You'll want to do this so that it blends more into the image and becomes part of the background and not taking up the space of the main portraiture.

Ah; here's another evil twin...the darker half. Difference blending mode is just basically inverting the light data of the pixels with the layer beneath it. Because the original layer is so light, it is appearing very dark.

You won't believe me if I told you but this beautiful text was kind of accident. But I knew that I wanted to create a really large text behind her with her name (carol) and immediately the tracking was at a really large negative number so the letters were really close together...but the designer in me (and you should develop this ability if you haven't) immediately said AHA! that's it!

It's important to develop this awareness because if you didn't you could just skip it on by and you want your designs to have that extra special midas touch to them. Always ask yourself how you can improve and be ready to go in new directions and you can instantly verify as part of your feeling or direction of the vision in which you want to take the design.

Go into the blending mode/layer styles dialog box (double click on the layer icon or right click..) Choose Satin and use these exact specifications if you so desire.  You can actually savor this original .psd file from the iPSDirectory when you get my Photoshop Designer Package (just loaded with Photoshop & design goodies).