Help with this composite

[buso23]

I have this picture of a construction worker that I have blended against a construction site and even though the edges are seamlessly blended, the image still looks as a composite instead of a natural image, there is something still missing and I don't know what.

Any advice or suggestions how to make it even more realistic ?

Thanks, Ljupco

P.S. I have the full size PSD file with everything on layers if anyone wants to give it a try but bear in mind that it's 281 MB.

You can download it from here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2396983/IMG_6801.psd

[4personnen]

Hi Mate!
Just my two cents:
The light is coming from overall/right on the background, it's the opposite for the man..
I think the proportion of the elements vs/ blur doesn't match. I would make the monument bigger or more blurry...
HTH

[Xaran]

Try flipping the image of the man or the background to get the light from the same direction.

Christine

[unimatrix001]

You could also try duplicating the background layer setting it to overlay, merge layers and then add the bohek effect to that layer.

[buso23]

Thanks guys, I'll try out the things you've suggested. Thanks again, Ljupco

[Tony W]

I think there are a couple of issues here:
(a) The lighting on the background vs foreground. Background image main direction coming in from the right. Foreground image lit more evenly both front and back - hat, back of the neck and shoulders.

(b) The difference in colour balance front to back.

So rather than change your composition too much left the man facing in original direction and changed colour balance/contrast of background only and also increased blur. For me at least this seems an improvement and I am sure that with more time spent the subject could improved much more. Not tried flipping the image to see the effect so this may be worth a try!

[kav]

The link for the big one isn't working for me. Anyway it has a number of issues. I think you should make the hard hat appear to fit him a bit better. It'll help with the convincing factor. The cutout is still a bit obvious to me, and needs more blending. On him you need to match the shadows and highlights a bit better in direction. He needs some shadows added, and the tint of the shadows and highlights should be matched a bit better. Having a hard time telling on this one, but I think the background photo is more magenta in the midtones and this one is a bit warm in the skin. Your processing of the file of the man seems like it may have been processed too bright on exposure. The shadows just don't feel much like shadows and his skin seems a bit washed out. I do think it's a slight issue that the background file seems like it has more degradation than the image of the man. I've had that problem when i've needed to swap a person or part of a person in a photo before. If one element is of noticeably lower quality, it can be really annoying. The entire image could be processed out darker, but make sure you're retaining your layers. I think to get it just right you're looking at a fair amount of masking to get the deeper shadows and correct the higlights in the right places. When the man is a bit closer I'd play with the backgrounds brightness level and detail or contrast a bit too to get it right. It's like it's not blurry, not entirely sharp, not saying much. It's just in between and distracting right now.