Overlay Technique Page

In order to achieve this technique in an image, firstly you must have two seperate images that you can put over one another.  This tends to work best if you have a portrait and then some form of texture or pattern that you can put over the top.

Here are the steps to achieving an interesting looking overlay picture:

1. Take two pictures and edit them to how you want both of them to look.  Don't edit them too much because when you overlap them, some of the colours will change and it won't look as professional.
2. You then need to use the portrait as the background and put the textured or patterned layer over the top.
3. You can then change the type of layer that it is to either lighten, screen or overlay depending on what you prefer, you can try lots of different types to get the one that you prefer.  Overlay or screen will tend to be the best one. 
4. You can then change the opacity of the layer to make it suitable to how you want it to look.
5. You can then erase particular areas that you don't want of the pattern to put emphasis on particular areas such as the eyes, nose and mouth, or even the outline of the face.  
6. You should then have your final image and you can alter features such as the levels and curves in order to get a photo that looks as good as it can.

Here is a couple of the photos that I made from the shoot that I did on overlay.