So, I've been practicing my photomanipulation

Original DA post with a the stock used is here.



So I've been working on some photomanipulation just for fun and so far, it is starting to look a lot better. Anyway, if anyone has any comments, questions, or tips, that would be awesome.

Wow.

1. The model is very pretty, and I lover her expression

2. The background is beautiful

Hello! Nice little lovely picture!

1. The font is hard to read, try another color. Green on red is not really ever good, unless the green is darker than the red.

2. Great job with the background. but one little thing. Why are the trees in rows? You never see them in perfect straight rows anywhere nowadays, dear.

3. The model is very pretty, but she seems to have been she cut and pasted on. Like she about to come off the picture. The only thing I could think of to fix this is putting the model farther back in the picture.

4. Her legs need major work.

Otherwise good job, this is nice and great. Good job with proportions and angles. You earned a star.

-Colt

HI!

It's really good manipulation, I like it. I'm guessing you put in the model's pic on the pic of the trees, so based on that and that you mostly would've used photoshop, here are my critiques.

1. It strikes me as quite obvious that she(let's just call her she) is not part of the pic. I would suggest you to use smoothen and blur on the edges. (good clipping of her, btw)
2.Would be better if you put a shadow under her feet- soft round/oval brush (black) with a minimum opacity.
3.The letters are kind of, not that attracting. If that is what you wanted, amazing job.
Otherwise, I suggest you create some nice floral boxish design (or a bunch of swirlies) with white on top of the background, set to overlay mode (play with these settings) and then put text on top of it.

Overall, amazing work. I love the way you've place her in the background.

~LAVA

Actually, this was done with GIMP not photoshop. (I'm cheap, went for the free version.)

Anyway, if anyone has any advice on how to run GIMP, that would be amazing.

Also, there are more of them that I've been doing. However, because of the stock I used, they can't be posted on any other site but DeviantArt. Anyway, here are the links to them along with the crediting to the stock photos.

The Princess of Ravenclaw (yes, I'm an HP fan. 8D )
The Time Lord's Daughters I really like this one because it took so much time and it has a lot of meaning behind it.

I agree, the model is beautiful but there's something about her pose that just doesn't fit the background and the wording. She looks rather terrified and cold to me which rather opposes the lines beside her. Her dress also, I find it rather out of the whole autumn thing.

The model and the background are both too sharp I think. I wish you did something to make the model look like she is springing from autumn instead of looking thoroughly detached from it. Perhaps you can edit around the model or something or reduce the sharpness of the picture or something. I'm not sure how you can do it but it would look wonderful if she really seemed to spring from autumn.

On the wording, the color doesn't match the rest of the picture. Neither does the font style.

Now, forgive me if I appear harsh. I do like this, because the background is beautiful and I have a partiality to autumn though I haven't seen one, really. Living in the tropics and everything. This picture generates an atmosphere I can't quite explain but I believe it is because this picture is pretty but it does need some work.

--Knightly

Hey,
Hmm, I would go for a black and bold font to stand out against the red background. Red and green seem to blend in here. The model is exceptionally pretty :O, I love her hair.
But somehow the pose doesn't seem to fit with the background, don't know why I'm thinking that, I would imagine someone walking or something, not in this dancey pose. I wouldn't be able to manipulate a photo like that however... I am real bad at it. -.- *Note to self... Practice!* xD
xxMiaxx

I'd have to say it's a pretty good start. I wouldn't call it a finished product, but it's getting there.

I'd have to disagree with everyone who said the green doesn't go with red. Green and red are on opposite sides of the color wheel from each other. The contrast of the two colors helps make the green stand out. This technique is used a lot in advertising. If the product to be advertised is a red car, they'll but it in a forest so the red contrasts against the green from the trees. Although I do think you could have used a better shade of green. Perhaps something a little darker so the letters don't fade against the bright red leaves, but not too dark that they'll disappear against the bark. Try experimenting a little with different shades of green and see which one you think is most effective.

As others have pointed out before me, the model does look like she was cut out of magazine and pasted onto the canvas. Softening out the edges will help, but you've got to go a little further than that. Always think of where your light source is coming from. To me it looks like the background's light source is coming from the left and the model's is coming from the right. This is something that can confuse your audience. In this piece it's quite visible, but even if it wasn't the audience will take notice. Even if they can't see what it is their eyes will tell them that something is wrong.

A simple quick fix would be to flip the image of the woman horizontally so her highlights are now on the left. But you still have work to do. I can tell by the highlights of the treetops that the light source is coming from the left, but the clouds in the sky dampen its affects. This is why you can't see any shadows under the trees. Try darkening the highlights on the woman and brightening up her shadows a bit, it'll help her fit in with the scene more.

Also think about ambient light. Red is obviously the most dominant color in this picture, and the woman has virtually no red on her anywhere. You can see the contrast in color by looking at her feet and comparing them to the leaves on the ground. When light bounces off a surface it carries part of the color from that surface with it. A perfect example of this is our sky. Light from the sun bounces off the ocean, carrying its color with it. When the light goes back up into the sky the color is projected against the atmosphere. That's why the sky is blue. If you were to add some red to the woman it would definitely help. But don't go overboard, make it subtle. You don't want to lose all her texture under a big swatch of paint.

Lastly, the background itself. The camera took a perfect picture of these trees, everything is crisp and easy to see. Our eyes, however, are not perfect. As things get further into the distance they begin to blur. To make this picture look a little more realistic, as a subtle haze to the far away trees. This isn't just a technical thing, it's also for the sake of your composition. Your focus is on the woman, right? You don't want your audience to get distracted by the detail of the trees a couple hundred yards behind her. The focal point of you composition should always be the most detailed. That doesn't mean everything else should have very little detail, though. As long as the rest of the scene doesn't distract the audience from the message you're trying to convey, you're good.

Well, I think I've covered all the important stuff, anything else would be nitpicking. I can see you understand the rule of thirds, since your focal point isn't directly in the center of your canvas, so that's good. This piece definitely has promise. Keep up the good work.

Hey Lily! June here!

This is pretty cool! I have to say, it takes an immense effort and a load of patience to work on these sort of things.


Dynamo pretty much said a lot of beneficial things that you should pay attention to. ^_^ There's not much else to point out here, but! I just want to say...

For good measure, casting a reddish tint over the girl would be a brilliant help to this, dear. It would make her look like she is in a more natural light-- the same that the trees are in. For now, it's seeming like she is walking in a florescent light, and the trees in natural-- the two put together present an odd, bright contrast.

She's kind of big, too! I would recommend shrinking her down a bit, too, so that she doesn't look so much as if she's almost the same height as the trees! Also, blurring the edges a bit (using a precision blur tool) of her dress and feet would help this look a bit more fluid.

But great job! These sort of things take loads of patience, dear.

Juniper

Great background, perfect blend of colors and lighting. The model goes really well with the background. The legs need some work.

And the font is really hard to read, unless I'm color blind, which i see red letters in the picture. Is there a theme that goes with the picture, or were you bored.