Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/inquisitive_98/

Hi all. I know it has been a long time since I have posted. I haev been quiite busy with school, writing, got my website up and running, and ect. ect. ect. Anyway, I finally had some free time this last week and began dabbling in a new project. I have it pretty well how I like it, but think it lacks something. I just am not sure what, though. Maybe some of you here can suggest what else I might do. Or maybe I just need to finish it here and now. TNX for the help! thendemaster. P.S. could you also check out my site and let me know what you think?

"I wish my brother George were here" ;O] - Liberace Whoa, very nice looking pic. Okay here is my 2 cents. Maybe a tad more light on the Singer. The shadows on the ground are a bit harsh and would indicate a stronger light hitting her from that angle as well as the lamp on the piano. Might also soften the shadows by playing with the shadow map and shadow setting. It would also help to make one point in the scene the key focus. I would think this would be your singer. Slightly brighter lighting on her would help in that, but also along those lines would be to keep her in focus (at least her face, you could add some motion blur to her hands and legs if you liked) and add a bit of blur to the rest of the scene. The wall behind her (where the plant is) needs something, maybe a shadow from the plant (on the bare area of the wall) and possibly a softer one cast by her. Really great looking overall though.

It looks light there's a lot of light emanating from the piano.

I would definitely do what shadownet suggested, but I would take it step further and make the background more darkly in shadow as it goes back toward the wall. Since the main focus of the image is the singer and you'd probably want her to stand out, put a spot on her, but keep the rest of the room darker, as piano bars tend to be. It's a matter of atmosphere, I guess ;). Nice image BTW! :). Laurie

Ditch the painting on the wall. Its needlessly distracting, and the frame is way out of scale. Nice choice of hair on the man. Ive only seen that particular hair prop used a few times, and it always seems to work well.

VirtualSite may be right about the picture but I'd try to get a few more thoughts on it first before I ditched it. I personally liked it and thought it added nicely to the scene. But that is just MHO.

I like the picture, and love the frame. Lighting is definately the problem, (and that is a from someone who has vast difficulty working out lights for interior scenes) Where did you get the frame? may I ask

Very nice. A bit more work, and you'll have it. I presume that you are focussing upon the relationship between the performers (especially with the look on his face), so comments will be directed that way. My suggestions: Tone down the lighting on the floor, her foot, and the band on the capital of the column in back. That is distracting. Augment the lighting on her face, and add some backlit edges to her hair and shoulder to arm leading towards his hands (this would be her right side). That way there is an arc of lighted bits linking the two faces, so the viewer's eye will travel between them. The palm is the only green thing in the scene. You could tone the hue down, but I'd rather that you added another on teh left of the image behind the man. It would frame the scene and add more intimacy to the moment. There are 5-6 different palms in the free stuff sections (check PropsGuild and 3dplants and Lannie's, too). It would partially cover teh nice wainscotting behind him, but I think it would help. I like the painting of the violinist: it suggests darker themes, too, wih her pallor. The frame is out of scale, but if it didn't cast so much shadow, people wouldn't notice it. You might make the purple a bit less strong, but that's a minor tweak. All of this is my humble opinion, of course! Carolly

Thanks for the suggestions. I really appreciate it! I know hter are still a lot of lighting issues to be worked out, but all in due time. I think I will keep the pic and frame. My wife and I like those too much to get rid of them--The pic in the frame is one I did earlier called Violin Dreams and I like the atmosphere it creates. Maybe I will need to try working on a different frame for it??? Well, wil post when I have it completed.