My First Collage Using a morguefile.com Background

[George Tyndall]

Is it obvious that the image has been "photoshopped"?

Any other comments/criticisms/suggestions?

Studio Model on Country Road_edited-1 (Medium).jpg

for the morguefile link, Bob.

[Gerlinde]

Hi George,
to be honest, I think it needs a little more work. You did a great job selecting the girl and transferring her into the new surroundings. But she looks a little out of place.

I can not figure out, if the way the light is shining on her , or simply the fact that there are no shadows around her, is the problem. You could try to apply a drop shadow to her layer and play around with the direction of the shadow.

Also her foot seem to float in the air. Try if cloning some of the grass over it will help to make her look more realistic.


P.S. I looked some more at the picture and I think the problem is really the light source of the two images. The girl is lit from the right and the son in the landscape picture is shining from the left side.

[Bob]

Is it obvious that the image has been "photoshopped"?

Yes, it is. There are some things that spoil the illusion that you can correct.

The color of the model is bluer than the background. It's obvious the two images were taken in different light. You can use curves to reduce the amount of blue (making her yellower) to better fit in with the background. You might need to adjust the contrast/brightness slightly to better match the background. The angle of lighting is different also. You can use the burn tool at a low opacity to darken the left side shadows and midtones slightly to simulate a more lateral lighting direction. Be subtle.

The background image has shadows, but the model doesn't. Adding a shadow will help sell the illusion. It will also help with the "floating" model problem.

The last biggie is the perspective. The model is too high in the shot to fit the perspective of the background. It doesn't feel right. The model's eyes are quite a bit higher than the horizon suggesting that the model was extremely tall or that you shot from a low angle. However, the background image doesn't look like you were at a low angle. You might try cropping the background to bring the horizon line closer to the model's face and adjust the position where you place her.

It's hard to tell from just the image you posted, but the edges of the model appear slightly hard to me. It may help to blend the model with the background by feathering the edge a few pixels to soften it up and add a slight amount of transparency (or use the blur tool and lightly blur just the edge of the extracted figure) -- but, don't overdo it.

FYI, The Caplin book that was mentioned in the other thread has a lot of information about matching colors and setting perspective.

I hope you find this helpful.

for the morguefile link, Bob.

You are very welcome. I use that site myself.

[George Tyndall]

Hi George,
to be honest, I think it needs a little more work. You did a great job selecting the girl and transferring her into the new surroundings. But she looks a little out of place.

I can not figure out, if the way the light is shining on her , or simply the fact that there are no shadows around her, is the problem. You could try to apply a drop shadow to her layer and play around with the direction of the shadow.

Also her foot seem to float in the air. Try if cloning some of the grass over it will help to make her look more realistic.


P.S. I looked some more at the picture and I think the problem is really the light source of the two images. The girl is lit from the right and the son in the landscape picture is shining from the left side.

Thanks for the reply.

With regard to the weight-bearing foot, this was the best of all the positions that I tried in terms of making it appear "grounded." I'll try cloning some grass as you suggested.

Regarding the lighting, my concern was actually the opposite of what you describe, specifically, the shadows on the road suggest that the sunlight is coming from the right side of the image, while in the studio only the fill light was on the right, and the main light was on her left. The application of a warming filter to only the model helped a lot with blending her into the background, but your discerning eyes stil detected that something is not quite right. I'll try your idea of placing a drop shadow so that it falls in the same direction as the shadow on the road.

again for taking the time.
\

[Bob]

Don't use drop shadow. It won't look realistic at all. Here's one tutorial of a better way to create shadows (the second method shown in the tut is best): http://layersmagazine.com/photoshop-realistic-shadows.html

[George Tyndall]

Is it obvious that the image has been "photoshopped"?

Yes, it is. There are some things that spoil the illusion that you can correct.

The color of the model is bluer than the background. It's obvious the two images were taken in different light. You can use curves to reduce the amount of blue (making her yellower) to better fit in with the background. You might need to adjust the contrast/brightness slightly to better match the background.

I did already apply a warming filter to try to eliminate the "fill flash" appearance that resulted from the studio lighting. Do I have curves in Elements 7?

The angle of lighting is different also. You can use the burn tool at a low opacity to darken the left side shadows and midtones slightly to simulate a more lateral lighting direction. Be subtle.

The background image has shadows, but the model doesn't. Adding a shadow will help sell the illusion. It will also help with the "floating" model problem.

I'll try first burnng in her left side to determine whether that is enough to give sense of direction. If I need shadowing, you are referring to Effects>Drop Shadows plus some further adjustment of whatever preset I use?

The last biggie is the perspective. The model is too high in the shot to fit the perspective of the background. It doesn't feel right. The model's eyes are quite a bit higher than the horizon suggesting that the model was extremely tall or that you shot from a low angle. However, the background image doesn't look like you were at a low angle. You might try cropping the background to bring the horizon line closer to the model's face and adjust the position where you place her.

Yes, I did shoot the model from waist leve or slightly below, and that is not quite the way the background was shot. I'll adjust that.

It's hard to tell from just the image you posted, but the edges of the model appear slightly hard to me. It may help to blend the model with the background by feathering the edge a few pixels to soften it up and add a slight amount of transparency (or use the blur tool and lightly blur just the edge of the extracted figure) -- but, don't overdo it.

Thanks for the blur suggestion, as I spent quite some time on the selection but, because I was satisfied, did not save it.

FYI, The Caplin book that was mentioned in the other thread has a lot of information about matching colors and setting perspective.

Yes it does, and that is why I have it always within arm's length when I am doing montages.

I hope you find this helpful.

Very helpful. I'll repost the revised image ASAP.

for the morguefile link, Bob.

You are very welcome. I use that site myself.

[George Tyndall]

Don't use drop shadow. It won't look realistic at all. Here's one tutorial of a better way to create shadows (the second method shown in the tut is best): http://layersmagazine.com/photoshop-realistic-shadows.html

Here is the revised image.

A side-by-side comparison in the 7 Organizer suggests significant improvement, however, additonal suggestions would be appreciated.

Studio Model Country Road_edited-3 (Medium).jpg

[Paul LS]

One thing for me is the un-natural pose of the model in the "natural" environment.... the model just looks out of place! If the background was a studio.. or club then it would work better. Plus the addition of a shadow would help, look at the grass at her feet... there are long shadows to the left.

[Bob]

Much better matching, but I'd add a bit more burning and dodging to sculpt the contours more like the background lighting. It still looks a bit odd though. And, I think I just realized what's causing that. The ruts in the road establish a scale that lets us gauge the size of the model relative to the background. We have a feel for how wide car ruts will be. And, compared to the ruts, the model looks small. Also, the size of the grass blades at her feet are large compared to her feet. The model needs to be larger relative to the background. Is the background photo large enough to accomodate that? If not, maybe content aware scaling and/or content aware fill can make the background more suitable.

[George Tyndall]

One thing for me is the un-natural pose of the model in the "natural" environment.... the model just looks out of place! If the background was a studio.. or club then it would work better.

Yes, it is a studio shot layered into a outdoor scene, and it does look unnatural.

Plus the addition of a shadow would help, look at the grass at her feet... there are long shadows to the left.

Excellent suggestion. I will try that now

Young Woman Country Road_edited-5 (Medium).jpg

[George Tyndall]

The model needs to be larger relative to the background. Is the background photo large enough to accomodate that? If not, maybe content aware scaling and/or content aware fill can make the background more suitable.

Here is the result using only free transform. I also lowered the opacity of the shadow a bit.

Young Woman Country Road_edited-6.jpg

Additional suggestions welcome.

[momoffduty]

What if you rotate the shadow so the feet are at say 5 o'clock and the head is around 10 or 11 o'clock. The feet start about a foot away from the model. Maybe make the shadow wider and slightly taller than the model and lower opacity. Make the shadow with more feathering.

Here is a little inspiration:

[George Tyndall]

What if you rotate the shadow so the feet are at say 5 o'clock and the head is around 10 or 11 o'clock. The feet start about a foot away from the model. Maybe make the shadow wider and slightly taller than the model and lower opacity. Make the shadow with more feathering.

Here is a little inspiration:

I'll try that now, and thanks for the inspiration.

Young Girl Country Road_edited-7 (Medium).jpg

[momoffduty]

Try keeping the shadow in the grasses only and lower the head of the shadow. I would make the shadow look less defined. In PS CS5 I would try to transform the shadow to be wider and then make a mask. In the mask UI panel up the feather quite a bit and play with the other settings. Try to mimic the shadow of the grasses...the angle, etc. This compositing stuff is very tricky just like color correcting. No easy one size fits all circumstances.

On the Vimeo page of that video the photographer talks about how he spent days and various variations until he was satisfied.

It took quite a number of hours over a few days with changes to get the end result.

[Steve Grisetti]

George, have you checked my three-part tutorial on photo faking? They cover many of these tricks in a very similar situation.
http://muvipix.com/products.php?searchp ... =0&btn.y=0