Composite - feedback appreciated

[petersweden]

Hi,

I am working on a composite of a soldier and would appreciate any feedback on how to improve it (especially with regards to colour matching).

Thanks

[edbayani]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Looks good but I would change the light hitting her face with a warmer tone.

[skoobey]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Looks good but I would change the light hitting her face with a warmer tone.

Looks good? Would change light with color... Great advice right there.
In fact it does not look that good, but the biggest giveaway are those legs with completely unbelievable dodging on them, gray face, and CGI paratroopers that are all at the same angle.

EDIT: Also, hair and skirt masking have to be improved.

[klev]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

It's better than the stuff you have posted prior to this, but it still makes very little sense to me. Relative scale is off. Color palette is a bit odd in places. Paratroopers are much too sharp relative to the subject. They look more like miniatures floating around her than people way in the distance somewhere.

[petersweden]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

It's better than the stuff you have posted prior to this, but it still makes very little sense to me. Relative scale is off. Color palette is a bit odd in places. Paratroopers are much too sharp relative to the subject. They look more like miniatures floating around her than people way in the distance somewhere.

Thanks for the feedback.
1. How would you change the scale?
2. Should I motion blur the paratroopers and change the angles around?
3. In what way is the color palette odd (besides the gray face)?

[petersweden]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Looks good? Would change light with color... Great advice right there.
In fact it does not look that good, but the biggest giveaway are those legs with completely unbelievable dodging on them, gray face, and CGI paratroopers that are all at the same angle.

EDIT: Also, hair and skirt masking have to be improved.

Thanks, good points. How do you think the legs should be changed? Should I make the edges expand further and with a longer falloff?

[skoobey]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Just blur them in general, they can't be sharper when they are so far away and the focus is on the girl.

Then there is the first thing, and that is the light. On the girl the main light is behind,right and down, on the paratroopers its straight to the left, and on the clouds it's to the right and up? That can't be.

[petersweden]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

More like this?

[skoobey]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Now two of the guys are gray. Angles are good, but now the lighting on the parachutes definitely make no sense, ligt doesn't jump. Also, if the guy is that big in relation to the girl, he must be near, so yes he should be less sharp BUT NOT THAT MUTCH. One furthest away is blurred well, it's just that he is gray. Dial back blur 50% on the closest guy, and flip the parachute around on the guy next to the girl. Turn off that gray whatever made them gray. Use pen tool, channels, to refine masking on the hair, gun, skirt. Then add color to the hand and face. I would also remove that fake glow on her, since it's not consistent.

[petersweden]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Now two of the guys are gray. Angles are good, but now the lighting on the parachutes definitely make no sense, ligt doesn't jump. Also, if the guy is that big in relation to the girl, he must be near, so yes he should be less sharp BUT NOT THAT MUTCH. One furthest away is blurred well, it's just that he is gray. Dial back blur 50% on the closest guy, and flip the parachute around on the guy next to the girl. Turn off that gray whatever made them gray. Use pen tool, channels, to refine masking on the hair, gun, skirt. Then add color to the hand and face. I would also remove that fake glow on her, since it's not consistent.

Thanks, good points.
1. My thinking was that atmospheric haze would make the guys far away have less contrast than the guy close to the camera hence the grayness. Is this wrong?
2. I assumed that the main light source is the big white blob (circled red) and that is why I flipped the parachutist on the left.

[skoobey]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Don't get lost in principles, worry only if it looks right or not. If that is the main light source ,then the parachutes would've been lit from behind. Even if the yare in the haze, it wouldn't be so uniform if they are in the clouds; color still needs to match the image. It's an all yellow image.

[beefhitler]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Another newbie here and would like to ask a couple of things here. OP, I hope you don't mind me chipping in with questions.

Would the OP would have managed it better with a less contrasty and less bright background? I mean, I know OP is trying to work with what he has but I guess using a blue sky with some sort of a sunset behind hills would have made things easier I guess?

Would adding dust/debris with some kind of a custom brush on some of the edges make things look better here?

I would have used a low contrast background without any light source and then worked on the objects thinking of a particular direction of light and then add the light source at the end and finish it with some solar flare or lens flare.

Not sure if what I said above makes sense.

[skoobey]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

He would still need to cut out out all the elements in front. So, no, not really. It's more about the angle of light in all the elements and how they match each other. He hasn't done enough of these to realize what fits right away.

Maybe, if you are going for the dirty look. It would make the image look dirty, not what's in the image.

You think of the image all at once, this is why you think about what you want before putting in elements.

[petersweden]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Now two of the guys are gray. Angles are good, but now the lighting on the parachutes definitely make no sense, ligt doesn't jump. Also, if the guy is that big in relation to the girl, he must be near, so yes he should be less sharp BUT NOT THAT MUTCH. One furthest away is blurred well, it's just that he is gray. Dial back blur 50% on the closest guy, and flip the parachute around on the guy next to the girl. Turn off that gray whatever made them gray. Use pen tool, channels, to refine masking on the hair, gun, skirt. Then add color to the hand and face. I would also remove that fake glow on her, since it's not consistent.

Any better? Masking still needs to be fixed.

[Kjonnnn]

Re: Composite - feedback appreciated

Addition to whats been said .... whether the image is meant to look real, or surreal, it still needs to follow basic physics rules.

- One of the first things is to pick components for the composite that in the end can look like the belong or can together.

- The light source you want to say is your primary is behind and all of your subjects. The reflections in the parachutes are too much to the side. With that blast of bright light that you say is your primarty source, the reflections on the parachutes would be closer to rim light, with "maybe" a dim reflection on the large parachute of the bright cloud thats on the left. I'd burn the reflection from half way to back on the chutes

- Is it suppose to be raining? or is that debris falling.

- The light on the soldier is just weird. It looks like she has a light under her skirt. As others have mentioned, the reflected light on her needs to be warmer. Using the source you say is the primary, I can see light reflecting off of her chest and arm, but the left side would be a darker, since it is away from the light source and blocked by her body. Looking at her arm thats holding the gun, there is clearly a light source on the ground, and off to the left? Is that your intent?

- The two smaller paratroopers look as if they are going to die in the fire, dictated by their relative size to the explosion clouds. Looks like they will LAND in the explosions.

- The contrast is odd on the two far paratroopers.