Foreground image was taken in the studio  with accent lights on both sides of the face and one light to camera right. Background looked too dull and I wanted to “jazz it up” . Many hours of blood sweat and tears take place on and off the court so decided to try blending the subject with a background photo of the gym.  Still too blah…  

I tried a haze in the background, but not enough texture for me. What to do, what to do?   Found some free smoke brushes and played around? Here is the link to the free brushes found at a site called ucreative.com. (Click on link) Made a transparency layer to apply the smoke to the background, erasing if necessary and another transparency layer on top of the image.  Go Lancers!