PortraitPro 21 - 50% OFF + an EXTRA 20% OFF! Use Code: EPZJS
Comments
http://ivadesign.deviantart.com/art/bird-brushes-116619710 bird brushes from here,,very useful,,
Youve done a great deal of work on the church that is beyond compositing ot layering.
What was the intent of colour scheme?
The clouds are added ok, but they seem to have doubles, or repeat edges in some of them?
The sky isnnt too bad in the originl, its at least blue, and Ive worked a mod. So were you after a sort of creepy, dark churchyard scene, in addition to the addition of the various elements?
Ill check back
W
What was the intent of colour scheme?
The clouds are added ok, but they seem to have doubles, or repeat edges in some of them?
The sky isnnt too bad in the originl, its at least blue, and Ive worked a mod. So were you after a sort of creepy, dark churchyard scene, in addition to the addition of the various elements?
Ill check back
W
Straightening is an essential.
My eye goes straight to the girl, but slowly. She's quite dark nad small, and is more of an afterthought than a subject. I'd make her bigger, brighter, and slightly less central.
However, this is an area of work that I don't do myself, and I'm not sure if you achieved what you were aiming for in the composition... Did you have a specific aim? Or, maybe, was the aim purely to make a striking composition?
My eye goes straight to the girl, but slowly. She's quite dark nad small, and is more of an afterthought than a subject. I'd make her bigger, brighter, and slightly less central.
However, this is an area of work that I don't do myself, and I'm not sure if you achieved what you were aiming for in the composition... Did you have a specific aim? Or, maybe, was the aim purely to make a striking composition?
I applaud the attempt indeed, but you need to spend more time on the quality of the basic components before any attempt to composite. Each welement needds to be of the same resolution and basic image quality.whilst the image is obviously intended to be mystical it hasn't come together seamlessly.
it's not easy to achieve and is something I used to do a bit with film and multiple exposure but less so with digital where it is actually easier. Keep try7ing though, no one gets things perfect first try.
Paul
it's not easy to achieve and is something I used to do a bit with film and multiple exposure but less so with digital where it is actually easier. Keep try7ing though, no one gets things perfect first try.
Paul
Well done for having a go at something like this.
I have done composite images in the past but there's nothing in my present portfolio.
You ask if it has worked. As you don't say what you wanted to achieve it's hard to know one way or the other, but just looking at this I'd say no.
However, there is an interesting idea there so I'll echo Paul and say keep at it.
Things to consider.
The clouds have some odd edge effects.
If this is to be a 'night' scene, consider making the sky and clouds more blue.
Correct the tilt of the building. Being slightly off vertical looks awkward or sloppy technique. If you were shooting up at the model and church then a strong angel of the building would be accepted and add drama. I know you didn't shoot the figure, I use that as an example. However, if you get a shot of a person shot from low down, shoot a background from low down too so there's a match in viewpoint and perspective. Mind you, that's a general guide, too.
Quality of the individual elements. The church image isn't very sharp, and hasn't responded well to sharpening, with halos especially evident around the headstones. Camera movement during exposure (wind, tripod not firm, vibration by triggering the shutter without a remote release, leaving IS switched on, all to be checked and eliminated). Try shooting at f/8 to f/11 rather than f/5.6 for optimum performance and to cover any focusing errors (if you shot a load of images it's possible focus may have moved, especially if the lens is on AF). Alternatively, if you use manual focus, so at least focus won't shift but you need to be accurate.
The figure looks very smooth and lower resolution, so try and use elements that have similar resolution at the size used in the composite.
The figure is central - placing her to one side would be better compositionally (though don't feel you need to stick to rules of thirds, in fact having her on the far left as she's looking back into the frame would be worth trying and may work well with something surreal) but also here she rather disappears into the background.
You could try a lighting effect on the figure to give her a visual lift, as she's a layer on her own, in the same way you'd use an off camera flash on a real model so they stand out against a background. Foreground subjects can be in different lighting to the background. This sort of scene would be ideal for that.
Keith
I have done composite images in the past but there's nothing in my present portfolio.
You ask if it has worked. As you don't say what you wanted to achieve it's hard to know one way or the other, but just looking at this I'd say no.
However, there is an interesting idea there so I'll echo Paul and say keep at it.
Things to consider.
The clouds have some odd edge effects.
If this is to be a 'night' scene, consider making the sky and clouds more blue.
Correct the tilt of the building. Being slightly off vertical looks awkward or sloppy technique. If you were shooting up at the model and church then a strong angel of the building would be accepted and add drama. I know you didn't shoot the figure, I use that as an example. However, if you get a shot of a person shot from low down, shoot a background from low down too so there's a match in viewpoint and perspective. Mind you, that's a general guide, too.
Quality of the individual elements. The church image isn't very sharp, and hasn't responded well to sharpening, with halos especially evident around the headstones. Camera movement during exposure (wind, tripod not firm, vibration by triggering the shutter without a remote release, leaving IS switched on, all to be checked and eliminated). Try shooting at f/8 to f/11 rather than f/5.6 for optimum performance and to cover any focusing errors (if you shot a load of images it's possible focus may have moved, especially if the lens is on AF). Alternatively, if you use manual focus, so at least focus won't shift but you need to be accurate.
The figure looks very smooth and lower resolution, so try and use elements that have similar resolution at the size used in the composite.
The figure is central - placing her to one side would be better compositionally (though don't feel you need to stick to rules of thirds, in fact having her on the far left as she's looking back into the frame would be worth trying and may work well with something surreal) but also here she rather disappears into the background.
You could try a lighting effect on the figure to give her a visual lift, as she's a layer on her own, in the same way you'd use an off camera flash on a real model so they stand out against a background. Foreground subjects can be in different lighting to the background. This sort of scene would be ideal for that.
Keith
I think you have done a very good job selecting out the sky from the rest of the image, especially in amongst the twigs & branches of the trees.
I assume you have been going for a night time effect. If so I would have gone for a cooler overall tone (except for the light coming throught the windows). Also to have darkened the lighter bits of the clouds a bit and made the clear sky blacker using selective colour & selective saturation on the blue of the sky (possibly also dropped in a few stars.
Otherwise I agree with much of what has already been said
I assume you have been going for a night time effect. If so I would have gone for a cooler overall tone (except for the light coming throught the windows). Also to have darkened the lighter bits of the clouds a bit and made the clear sky blacker using selective colour & selective saturation on the blue of the sky (possibly also dropped in a few stars.
Otherwise I agree with much of what has already been said
Thank you all for your very valuable input and opinions...
Everything raised I do agree with totally and as I was putting together the image I was becoming more disillusioned with it in the sense that it was not working due to the points raised , but thought I started so I might as well finish..i think that has come across in the final image as was picked up by Keith..my intention really was to create a twighlight creepy mystical image with the yellowish window light engulfing the churchyard and spilling out onto the walls of the church and I wanted the sky to look as if there was a storm brewing and the birds were getting restless ..
The original photo was taken in near total blackness it was gone 8 o clock back in March,,i was amazed when I downloaded the files and found that many of the shots looked like they were taken in daylight ..I originally set out to try to get a sunset shot of the church from up on the hillside but the sunset did not oblige so I set of down the hill to shoot the church close up by then it was dark and I had no torch or anything so was guessing many of the settings hence why I took so many shots. The actual church is built on a slope I think that is why it looks awkward but may have to go back and check. my tripod was probably at an angle though..As for the sky I agree with Willie it does look a bit strange and I did have to stretch it and resize etc which has destroyed it really ..the resolution was all wrong but I really wanted to use my own stock and try to make it fit and colourize it to fit the scene I had in mind ..but as Keith mentioned Quality and resolution of the elements are so important ,,which I was finding out as I was putting this together ..Finally the lady in black stock image was of good quality and resolution but what I forgot was that as soon as I put her into my image she took on the low resolution of my original image which made her look very poor quality plus again as Keith mentioned 100% my camera angle and the lady are different pov..thanks for the tip on shooting all elements from same camera angle , I guess that means planning your shot and what you want from the beginning and not on the hoof like this one, more to this compositing than meets the eye,!!!
Overall it was a good learning experience as I would like to try my hand at more of these composites in the future..once again thanks for to all of you for the feedback..
Ps my favourite part of the image is the bird brushes I downloaded ..they were brilliant.!!
Martin
Everything raised I do agree with totally and as I was putting together the image I was becoming more disillusioned with it in the sense that it was not working due to the points raised , but thought I started so I might as well finish..i think that has come across in the final image as was picked up by Keith..my intention really was to create a twighlight creepy mystical image with the yellowish window light engulfing the churchyard and spilling out onto the walls of the church and I wanted the sky to look as if there was a storm brewing and the birds were getting restless ..
The original photo was taken in near total blackness it was gone 8 o clock back in March,,i was amazed when I downloaded the files and found that many of the shots looked like they were taken in daylight ..I originally set out to try to get a sunset shot of the church from up on the hillside but the sunset did not oblige so I set of down the hill to shoot the church close up by then it was dark and I had no torch or anything so was guessing many of the settings hence why I took so many shots. The actual church is built on a slope I think that is why it looks awkward but may have to go back and check. my tripod was probably at an angle though..As for the sky I agree with Willie it does look a bit strange and I did have to stretch it and resize etc which has destroyed it really ..the resolution was all wrong but I really wanted to use my own stock and try to make it fit and colourize it to fit the scene I had in mind ..but as Keith mentioned Quality and resolution of the elements are so important ,,which I was finding out as I was putting this together ..Finally the lady in black stock image was of good quality and resolution but what I forgot was that as soon as I put her into my image she took on the low resolution of my original image which made her look very poor quality plus again as Keith mentioned 100% my camera angle and the lady are different pov..thanks for the tip on shooting all elements from same camera angle , I guess that means planning your shot and what you want from the beginning and not on the hoof like this one, more to this compositing than meets the eye,!!!
Overall it was a good learning experience as I would like to try my hand at more of these composites in the future..once again thanks for to all of you for the feedback..
Ps my favourite part of the image is the bird brushes I downloaded ..they were brilliant.!!
Martin
Hi Martin - first of all, I do apologise for missing this one!
However, secondly, I've had a play to see what I could do with the elements, based on what you said about what you wanted to try and achieve. I've cheekily used Willie's second mod as the basis for the church (sorry Willie, but it WAS good!) and rather than go to the link you've supplied above for the girl, I've simply cut her out of your one above. Mostly because of the whole copyright thing I thought it was safer that way.
Anyway, I moved the girl over to the right of the image in my mod. I adjusted the tones of her using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, clipped to the cutout layer below.
Then I added some birds - not your birds above, admittedly, but some birds. They don't, unfortunately look quite as good as yours, but they'll suffice ...
Then I added a soft shadow for the woman, on a seperate layer, using a low opacity black brush, an Overlay blend mode and 60% Opacity.
Then I added a Color Lookup adjustment layer, using my go-to favourite creep-factor preset, FoggyNight.3DL - I left this at 100% Opacity, but used the Color blend mode, which left the creep-factor feeling, but nowhere near as dense
Then I took the whole thing off into Nik's Color Efex Pro 4 and had a right good fiddle around in there, layering various effects until I felt that I'd achieved what I think you were aiming for ...
Anyway, have a look and see what you think. If you're serious about getting into composities, I can thoroughly recommend a very good book - Photoshop Masking & Compositing, by Eismann, Duggan and Porto (available through the A**Z** website). It's a lot to get your head around, but excellent reading and you may not surface for a few weeks
Tanya
However, secondly, I've had a play to see what I could do with the elements, based on what you said about what you wanted to try and achieve. I've cheekily used Willie's second mod as the basis for the church (sorry Willie, but it WAS good!) and rather than go to the link you've supplied above for the girl, I've simply cut her out of your one above. Mostly because of the whole copyright thing I thought it was safer that way.
Anyway, I moved the girl over to the right of the image in my mod. I adjusted the tones of her using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, clipped to the cutout layer below.
Then I added some birds - not your birds above, admittedly, but some birds. They don't, unfortunately look quite as good as yours, but they'll suffice ...
Then I added a soft shadow for the woman, on a seperate layer, using a low opacity black brush, an Overlay blend mode and 60% Opacity.
Then I added a Color Lookup adjustment layer, using my go-to favourite creep-factor preset, FoggyNight.3DL - I left this at 100% Opacity, but used the Color blend mode, which left the creep-factor feeling, but nowhere near as dense
Then I took the whole thing off into Nik's Color Efex Pro 4 and had a right good fiddle around in there, layering various effects until I felt that I'd achieved what I think you were aiming for ...
Anyway, have a look and see what you think. If you're serious about getting into composities, I can thoroughly recommend a very good book - Photoshop Masking & Compositing, by Eismann, Duggan and Porto (available through the A**Z** website). It's a lot to get your head around, but excellent reading and you may not surface for a few weeks
Tanya
Hi Tanya,,
Have to say you have done a superb job of re working the image. That is absolutely more to my liking and how I wanted it to turn out like..thank you. The colours and tones look so much better and moving the lady helps the composition. The Nik Colour Efex has done a good job,.i have watched some videos of composting and I notice a lot of people using Niks colour Efex software..Are you a big fan of it and can you buy it as a standalone program or part of a suite and roughly how much is it please?..
Thanks for the book recommendation I will look into that . Composting is certainly something I would like to pursue as I do enjoy using Photoshop. I have had a quick browse on this website but there does not appear to be to many articles on composting, not sure how it works but maybe someone could write a few articles,!! I particulary like the work of a chap named Glyn Dewis..he has also wrote a book and has a very informative website..
Anyway, all the best and thanks again..
Martin
Have to say you have done a superb job of re working the image. That is absolutely more to my liking and how I wanted it to turn out like..thank you. The colours and tones look so much better and moving the lady helps the composition. The Nik Colour Efex has done a good job,.i have watched some videos of composting and I notice a lot of people using Niks colour Efex software..Are you a big fan of it and can you buy it as a standalone program or part of a suite and roughly how much is it please?..
Thanks for the book recommendation I will look into that . Composting is certainly something I would like to pursue as I do enjoy using Photoshop. I have had a quick browse on this website but there does not appear to be to many articles on composting, not sure how it works but maybe someone could write a few articles,!! I particulary like the work of a chap named Glyn Dewis..he has also wrote a book and has a very informative website..
Anyway, all the best and thanks again..
Martin
Hi Martin
Google are now giving away Nik Efex software for free. See
https://www.google.com/nikcollection/
Windows 10 is not included in the list of compatible Windows operating systems, but it seems to work on my Windows 10 PC. There is also a version for Apple.
Richard
Google are now giving away Nik Efex software for free. See
https://www.google.com/nikcollection/
Windows 10 is not included in the list of compatible Windows operating systems, but it seems to work on my Windows 10 PC. There is also a version for Apple.
Richard
Richard's already said about the Nik collection now being available free, so I'd definitely recommend downloading it. It's one of those things that you'll probably dive into headfirst for a while, coming up with all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff, but you'll also discover as you use it more (particularly Color Efex) what works for your style and what doesn't.
Glyn Dewis was the other chap I was going to recommend (I have one of his books too), so good that you already know of him.
Compositing, and the idea of creating the unreal from the real, is a marmite thing sometimes. Some people love it, others really don't see the point. I'm definitely on the love it side and it's something I'm pursuing myself, slowly but surely!
Glad you liked the mod - it was a pleasure to work on.
Tanya
Glyn Dewis was the other chap I was going to recommend (I have one of his books too), so good that you already know of him.
Compositing, and the idea of creating the unreal from the real, is a marmite thing sometimes. Some people love it, others really don't see the point. I'm definitely on the love it side and it's something I'm pursuing myself, slowly but surely!
Glad you liked the mod - it was a pleasure to work on.
Tanya
Cheers Tanya,,i have already downloaded it and playing with it like a kid with a new toy.!!..I totally agree about compositing it is definitely a marmite subject..i am on the love side also .for me its the enjoyment of using photoshop as well as the camera,,pushing the boundaries further with a composite image than with a normal photo.
All the best ..
Martin
All the best ..
Martin
