Why does this composite look fake?

[likes_pixels]

Hi,

I am working on a portrait where I took the head from one shot and placed into another. Everything matches fine, the masking is perfect and lighting is similar. But for some reason the image still looks fake. I want to see what everyone else out there thinks and maybe you can give me some suggestions to improve it and make it more real. Are the proportions a bit off? Is it because of the lighting? Maybe the colors correction?

Please see the attached images, I've included all the images I used.

Thanks!

[ellefolk]

Have you tried to replace only mouth and eyes?

[likes_pixels]

No I haven't but I really need to replace the whole head. I do not like how his head is tilted back and his chin digs into the neck. Thanks so much.

[Mike Needham]

Is the client unhappy?

[dhp]

i'd say the new neck is too thin for the thickness of the 'traps' & the highlight on the neck inside the right collar (his left collar) is too bright - hope that helps?

[plugsnpixels]

My immediate reactions were:

1) If you hadn't said anything I wouldn't have noticed any problem

and 2) but since you did, the lighting on the right side of his face seems a little flat when compared to the rest of the image. The weird thing is, it looks that way in the source photo too (?)

[RobertAsh]

Agree with comments so far, including the observation that nothing is glaringly wrong. Actually, the lighting isn't the same in the source images. In the composite:

• The face's skin tone is different from the hands' skin tone and the shadows fall differently.
• The hands are too big for the face at the elevated camera position at which the standing shot was taken.
• The camera position is at different angles in the two source shots
• The lighting on the shadow side of the neck doesn't match the lighting in the original (sitting at the desk).

None of this really leaps out at you, though, at first look.

[Repairman]

2 more cents. You can't cut out objects and place them against white backgrounds without the original lighting giving the game away. Here you have 'dramatic' lighting which is at odds with the background. This is compounded because the head is facing us whilst the body is turned to the left. Physically possible of course but slightly jarring. The right collar is in shadow but there is a highlight on the neck underneath which doesn't help. The head and the hands look like they belong to different people. The devil is in the detail!

[palms]

To me the pose of the bodies are different so the new one looks out of kilter

[creativeretouch]

there is also different angle of the shadow under the nose & chin - but you are almost there ...

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http://shotworldwide.com

[likes_pixels]

No the client has not seen the image yet but I just know it looks a bit off. I've shown it to people around the office and to the untrained eye (or without me saying a thing) they think it looks fine.

[likes_pixels]

Thanks so much for the input guys. Here is the new revision of the image which I think it's much more realistic. Here's what I did:

1. I tilted the head to the left a few degrees so that it sits more straight with the body.
2. I reduced the shadows on the left side of his face, so that the lighting it's not so dramatic.
3. I used the neck from the 'head' source image instead of combining the two.
4. I matched the tone and contrast a bit better on the face/head to the hands.

What do you guys think? I've included the before and after.

[Cupcake]

It looks better now.

[plugsnpixels]

Agreed, though he would probably be happy with either.

[lokki]

The big elements I would work on in the revision are:

The shadow under the chin is too cool and light - darken, warm up, increase contrast here.
The detail and texture in the skin does not match the hands or the texture detail in the shirt - try cloning some of the original texture and variation in.
The head is just a tiny bit too small. The original's angle and gesture gives you an artificially small reference, so you'll need to scale it up just a notch or two.

One way to help with the lighting is to build a soft map of the lighting. You can try isolating the head, desaturating, blurring, and using the brightness values as a guide. If you're really brave, try equalizing the light on the replacement head and using the blurred/desaturated copy as a Soft Light layer on low opacity as a starting point. The intermediate step of evening out the light will look horrible and flatter until you bring the depth back.