Is This Cheating?

[George Tyndall]

Rather than spend time to create a shadow of the model, I decided to put her into one that already existed.

Is this cheating?

Young-Lady-in-the-Shade.jpg

[Paul LS]

No not cheating, looks pretty damn good! Her being in the shade also pretty well matches her "lighting".

[Steve Grisetti]

Yep. Looks pretty good. Although you may want to feather her edges just a tad so that she doesn't look so much like a cut-out -- as I described in the tutorial series I linked you to in your other thread.

BTW, "cheating" is not a bad thing in Photoshop. The only rules in Photoshop are that it looks true!

[George Tyndall]

Yep. Looks pretty good. Although you may want to feather her edges just a tad so that she doesn't look so much like a cut-out -- as I described in the tutorial series I linked you to in your other thread.

Yes, I agree. Although this is how the image looked best with the red mask in the Refine Edge dialog, the edges are still appear a bit too sharp here.

BTW, "cheating" is not a bad thing in Photoshop. The only rules in Photoshop are that it looks true!

Yep. The goal is "to cheat without getting caught," it's been said.

My goal, when I've gotten good at this, is to create a slide show that consists of a single image in a multiplicity of settings, each with its own style in terms of the frames and other artwork that are available in PSE7.

BTW, the methods you demonstrate in the three tutorials are quite different from any of the others that I have seen. I'm going to try them as soon as I have the time.

[momoffduty]

This photo is much better suited for the compositing. What about a city street at night for the other model? Could add a radial blur to the edges of the photo so the street lights streak. Maybe a composite turned to black & white.

[George Tyndall]

This photo is much better suited for the compositing. What about a city street at night for the other model? Could add a radial blur to the edges of the photo so the street lights streak. Maybe a composite turned to black & white.

Yes, I like it, I'll look for such a scene.