Does the background work?

[Ed_L]

I'm restoring a tintype, and I replaced the background with drapes, which I made by using Leah's tutorial . I have a long way to go on the restoration, but I'd like to know if you think the background works. I think it does, but I'd like other opinions. Thanks for a great tutorial, Leah. Oh yeah, the images on the tut are broken. Here's the original, and with new background.
Ed

[Doug Nelson]

The bg works well for me, but perhaps it looks just a bit perfect compared to him?

Sorry about the links. For some reason a few got changed during the upgrade. Perhaps some kind person could PM me with a list of tut urls with broken links

[Ed_L]

Wow! What a quick reply. Thank you. Do you mean the background is too perfect because he isn't finished yet? Or is it because of the clothing? I still have to restore the subject. It wasn't meant to be thought of as done. And I can't forget to flip it either.

Ed

[sdubose99]

Ed -- I think the curtain looks wonderful! Only change I would make is to blur it just slightly...

Is the floral look included in Leah's tut? Or how did you achieve that?

Scott

[Doug Nelson]

I doubt any amount of restoration could get him to match that great background. An idea that just came to me as I was typing this: take a patch off the original, somewhere with little detail but some deterioration, make a pattern out of it, fill a layer over the bg and fiddle with blending modes and opacity.

[Ed_L]

Great idea. Thanks.

Ed

[angue]

I like the idea of curtains as background. However, in olden days they usually use heavy velvet curtains. My suggestion would be to put some sheen and remove the pattern.
Just a suggestion.

[RGH]

Hope you don't mind me putting my opinion in but although I think the bg works ok, I think that what makes it so stark is the lack of shadow. When you have finished the picture (The gent), think about using the burn tool on the drapes, (a wide soft edge) maybe, and burn the lower drapes to match the dark chair. Also gently coming up the sides. I think this would put more atmosphere into the picture and bring the gent forward to the viewer.

Just a thought but I know it?s not finished yet anyway.

[Leah]

I think it may need a bit of Curves just to reduce the starkness of the highlights on the drapes.

Also, as RGH says, having a bit of shadow on the drapes makes a big difference. You'd need to play around with this - maybe something dramatic as he/she suggests would work, but even a subtle tweak makes a big difference (you could do a feathered selection and tweak the Levels). The light source is clearly quite high, though, so don't let the shadow come up past the top of his head.

[Ed_L]

Ah, a lot of feedback since I was last on! Thanks very much to all, and I'm sure with all the suggestions, we'll make something that will work very well.

Ed