First composite! Let me know what you think...

[GMDee]

Hey everyone, I recently put together my first composite, and though I've got my own opinions about what is wrong with it, I'd like to ask for input from more experienced people. It is created from 3 images, the photo of myself, which was taken with a few studio lights in my living room, as well as the wall photo and the landscape that are from sxc.hu.

Looking for constructive criticism, thanks!!

[GMDee]

Just realized that one is a bit small, reposting image a little larger...

[Jerryb]

hi
my 2 cents worth... just a novice...

overall i like selection they appear to be good and such...

but the thing that struck me first was lighting direction and shadows..

maybe it just the way i am viewing but
it appears your major source of light is coming appx the middle left side...
the supporting bars at the top the first two looks ok but the third appears no shadow but the fourth thier shadow appears to be at 90 degree angle...

now when looking at the over allimage you notice the right bottom part is sort of darker... however .... look at the person it appears has light shining on him on the arms and such and he has a shadow on the left side of him..

considering that it appears the major light source is on the left i would expect his shadow would not be on the left side and highlts would be more on the left side ...

now something else bother me... comming from the third supporting bar there appears to be a large rust stain comming down .... maybe i am wrong.. but it seems the mural itself would block out all that stain ... but maybe i am wrong...

anyway those are my 2 cents worth and over all i like it.. probably better than i can do....lol

[Siciliana]

I think the shadow of the painter is as bit off. There are two light sources. One off to the left and another above the painter. I think given the angle of the lights his shadow would be lower, slightly more to the right and it also looks too harsh to me, but this is all just coming out of my mind's eye. Try to find a real life object with a similar lighting set up and look at how the shadow falls and how sharp the edges are and where they blur out.

I also think that it might look more authentic if you ran some kind of paint filter over the image that he is painting before you comp it in so that it looked more like brush strokes and maybe played with the contrast and color a bit, since painting generally have different tones and contrast then photos. You can use the same mask as you have for the painting to desaturate and prepare the area beneath the paint, so that you don't have the rust showing through. It also seems to me as if the shadows of the wall texture are less strong in the painted area and that makes it look more photoshopped to me.

This is just me nit-picking but it looks good!

[Siciliana]

Oh, and to that I would add that given the overhead lighting of the painter according to the wall, he needs more light falling on his head and shoulders and raised arm. The harsh light on the back of his lowered arm is not consistent with the lighting falling on the wall.

With this image, you can probably get by with fixing that digitally.

[Matt84]

Nice first comp, like the idea.

The first thing that strikes me is the size of the man! He looks pretty small if that's a standard wall he's painting on...

I'd also be tempted to desat the painting slightly, just to reign it in a bit... Try and bring some of the wall detail through too. Trying different blending modes or even dropping the opacity could help...

You could also take a colour range of the shadows and apply this selection as a mask to the painting, this will give it a bit of a more realistic look...

Could also take some red out of the guys blacks too...

Feel free to ignore me, just my 2 cents!

[GMDee]

Thanks for the input everybody, lots of valuable advice. I'll revisit and repost once the image has been worked on a little more!

[palms]

OK my two penneth worth
I cant add about lighting i am useless at that ! !

but something was hitting me as not quite right , and i think it is the position of the man,

Being right handed if you put your arm up to paint it would be towards the right of the painting for what is left to be painted,
see what i am getting at ?

and maybe make the palette a bit bigger as it is not that obvious what it is

but great work so far and great concept

palms