Critique and help (chromakey work)

[WhidbeyPix]

Ok, I'm helping with my dad's business. He does knitwear so the whole family got together to do a photoshoot modeling his products (in this case legwarmers for ballet). My nice semi-professional D70 got stolen and I was stuck with my sister's new Cannon rebel XT, which is probably not bad, but sorry, the results I got from the D70 before were 10 times better inspite of lower resolution. (Who cares if it's 8 MP if the image looks like crap). Probably had a lot to do with the fact that I wasn't as familiar with the equipment and I had no decent lighting equipment (I'm broke)
Anyway, we used a green background so I could cut out the subject and paste in whatever backgrounds I want later (and to be able to have transparent backgrounds for the web.
This photo is of my daughter and my sister. In the original, my sister was squinting, so I replaced the eye. My other sis (the one in charge of the website dev) says the new eye doesn't look right. What am I doing wrong? is it in the wrong place, is it too small? Wrong angle?
anyway here's the before and after:
Before
After

and that thing on her neck... a nasty sunburn a few days before the photo shoot.

[pindaro]

The eye definitely is "weird"

If you don't have other picture with a replaceable eye, consider keeping the squint, it does not bother much.

The silhouette is too strong, you should think in feather 1 to 5 px that selection in order that the subject merge better with the background.

The coloring also needs more work.

I don't think there is much to salvage here since their position is not very appealing (At least for my taste, I don't now much about ballet) I would seriously consider redoing the shoot.

Consider also showing more of the kid expression. you where placed to low and a little to the picture right. this gives and odd feeling.

cheers..

[Littlecoo]

I also think a reshoot would be best if that is possible. The posing and composition (to me) looks awkward, too open and, well, not all that flattering.
I have attatched a few images as 'ideas'. If I sound a bit harsh, I don't mean to be... just wanna help

[Littlecoo]

Oh... one more...

[Kraellin]

hi whidbey,

yes, the eye is off a bit but an easy correction. take a 1 pixel brush and simply paint out a bit of the white. the iris wraps with the eyeball and you've simply cut a bit too much of it out. use a dark color and simply put it back.

if it still doesnt look right take whatever warping tool you use (warp brush in psp) and with a very small brush raise the top part of the eyelid just a smidgen across the entire length of the eyelid keeping the rounded shape you already have. and i mean a very small smidgen. if no warp tool then try adding a 1 pixel line of black above the current black.

craig

[JayBee]

I think this is on case where retouching can't really hide the fact that the shots are not posed or lit well as you've mentioned.

Your dad runs a business and we all want to save money but in advertising his product he should be investing in the services of a professional photographer (not some Joe who owns a 1Ds) and getting this done in a studio with proper lighting. There would be no need for retouching or dropping in backgrounds (which is going to look false).

I always find it amazing how some businesses will hire anyone standing who has a DSLR to do their "ad shoots" based on cost only. This is not a good way to go as you've proved!

Jay

[pellepiano]

You also need to keep some shadow at their feets so they dont just float in the blue air.

Using green/blue screen can be very powerful, but is also limiting in some ways. The shots will take some more time to assemble but you always have the option to change backgrounds later or shoot new ones that are specially made for the pose.

I am experimenting a lot with bluescreen, using it for all my images. If you want to see some examples for ideas, check ... http://www.modelmayhem.com/pics.php?id=92920