Warning: Extreme Amounts of Photoshop

[caleb]

Please don't be afraid to nit pick this. I'm posting because I want to learn by critique. There's a lot going on here (imo) and it's probably best viewed in full size. This is my first attempt at a photoshop composite. Overall I'm happy although there are a few things I will likely change or maybe just redo a new hand.

Full Size

[cm_mtb]

I think this is pretty cool. I really like the flower growing out of the crease in the palm and then wrapping around the finger.

I have two criticisms, though: I think the placement of the wineglass on the tip of the finger seems just a little "off", and I think that maybe it should be level. Also, the lighter on the thumb looks like a bit of an after thought. It doesn't give the impression of being part of the finger like the other objects do.

A common theme between the objects might also make an interesting image, but the appeal of this to me is the apparent randomness of the objects you chose.

[caleb]

thanks and I agree about the wine glass. I was thinking about doing a chicken leg instead. The lighter was shot with the wrong light so I tried to make it work anyway

love, war, food, oral history/song, technology. things we need/use/have from beginning of existance

[cm_mtb]

I think with a little work that the wine glass would look fine. Why not have the chicken leg coming out of the thumb instead of the lighter?

[reidsprincess20028]

I like this picture, maybe just a flame coming out of the thumb instead of the lighter!

[Frog]

Fascinating idea. Well worth working on.
Will love to see what you come up with as it has me thinking of what I would put there.
I like your love, war, food, oral history, technology but think better objects could be used except maybe the guitar and bullet which I think come across the best.
Wish I had the skill.

[Didache]

I wonder if the reason the wine glass looks "wrong" is because of the scale? The flower, bullet, and lighter are more or less to scale, but the wine glass is much smaller, and hence looks out of place? I know the guitar head is also out of scale but somehow doesn't jar as much. If this is the case then the chicken leg idea might indeed work better. Alternatively, something like an asparagus spear or carrot?

Cheers
Mike

[MarcusK]

That's some decent work on photoshop... forgive me if I repeat something that has already been said...but here goes...my nit picks :

1- Was the hand shot against a simple black background? there are some smudges, halos if you will, around the fingers... solid black for those would be better.

2- The wine glass does not work, because of how it's been implemented. Yes, it is an issue of scale... it is the only complete item and is too small.... relative to the hand... to keep it, you could try just keeping the top part (where you pour the wine) or seek thee out another element

3- The lighter on the thumb, requires better placement, and it should not be a big deal... just take it back a bit, tilt it.. as for the fire, you can easily just select it, then turn it upwards.

4- For the guitar... I think it needs a slight tilt to the right... to follow the finger's direction, and also, maybe a little bit more of that finger to be shown blended with the wood...

5- The bullet needs a slight tilt to the right too... and again, by slight i mean as a maximum 1 degree...

6- I like the flower, and was wondering however, if you tried twisting it on the finger a bit more, and then have it flop to any one side above the finger?? basically a bit more vine going in and out of the finger would be a bit more in tune with what you are doing here.

7- Bullet finger, glass finger, both at the lowest section, have some grainy skin on them... a quick touch up, even for all of the hand would be in order...

Ok, so that's me really digging here... you have got the skills to work magic, looking forward to some more! Hope this helps...

[Kasey1]

thans a lot mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[img]http://www.**************/img/4673/n09x0302vnsn/clear.gif[/img]

[Greg McCary]

A cool idea and worth a little more work. For some reason I think the bullet doesn't work. Well worth some more effort.

[caleb]

thanks a lot, marcus very helpful. as you may be able to see, I tried to bend the guitar with the finger at the joints/frets. I don't like it looking at it today. I shot all the pictures during blazing early afternoon light next to a window. I just used a high f stop and 1/200 with flash. This is also the reason for not having edited out the smudgy areas in black (hard to see contrast in the blacks on my monitors during the day)

I will try again within the next week I'm sure, but I have an issue that until something is "done" or close to done, I can't think about or do anything else. I'm not ready to spend another 5+ hours or whatever doing it again.

[caleb]

A cool idea and worth a little more work. For some reason I think the bullet doesn't work. Well worth some more effort.

is it the lighting when compared to the guitar? (looks to be more like 45 degrees instead of from the side -although they were the same.)

[livin4lax09]

the vine has too much light on it for wrapping around the finger, and too much color. The lighting you provided on the hand is dark and will desaturate the vine if it was really in that spot. Carefully look at all of your intersections of real and photoshop, and study how the light falls around the curves of the hand and how it would do the same for the bullet, vine, etc.

Most of my issues with this lie within the lighting sources. It's obvious that your light was coming from above camera, and is soft. However, the lighting on the bullet is from camera left, and the glass is harsh camera right. And the guitar strings have a distinct shadow, which isn't how it would look when you compare the shadows on the hand. The most important thing about making stuff like this work is photographing everything in the same lighting that you're going to be blending together, and planning your comp out ahead of time.

[caleb]

Thank you, very correct with everything you said about light sources. What happened is that I took the picture of my hand sideways in the frame (rotated 90 degrees afterwards) and then kept the lights approximately the same but no rotation for the other objects (but sometimes flipped 180).

[GB1]

I like the idea and think you did a fairly decent job on much of it.

I think the project is off to a rocky start, however, with a poor initial image of the hand. It's way too dark, and the light it does have isn't all that well angled and has too many highs and lows. I think the hand has to be very well lit and also detailed and sharp to start with. It's just a downer to see the wrinkles in the hand but for them to be so soft.

Assuming the hand's lighting was mid-level, I think that the flower and lighter would work fine. The bullet is too dark but it's shape and size match the finger well. The middle finger looks like it has a bandage on it? The glass on it is very small but I think that's OK. Where it lies on the finger is way too transparent, looks too soft also. The index finger looks acceptable.

I really think a photo creation type project like this needs to look sharp or it will look like you're trying to hide your mistakes. Shots like this are like a game: the viewer will analyze the image looking for mistakes, and the artist tries to do his work so well that they can't find any. Detail is critical.

Anyway .. it's Friday... outta here.

G

[caleb]

I agree, I made a new shot of the hand with the theme vain insecurities. Using some tips (more consistent lighting, mostly). Missing bra + scale.

I darkened the original hand to try to bring out some extra detail with high pass filter. I've never used it before and I agree that it's too much looking at it a few days later. Here's attempt #2 in progress. I haven't done any editing on the actual pictures yet, just shadows/layer masks. Critique on this is appreciated as well.

[caleb]

The middle/ring/index are grouped close together and my "model" had 0 control over her ring finger. Which was frustrating and hilarious. I'm thinking about swapping the hair to the ring finger and the jacket to the index. Thoughts? Nitpicks on my progress so far? The bra has been maybe the hardest thing so far... i copied the thumb to get extra flesh and then tried to roughly copy the shadows from the original photo.