Ok, that's a wordy title for a simple task - editing a photo that has been composited, and still needs work. In this post, fellow boardie monteb posted a beautiful poser render that he had composited into a photo of a gorge in France. Nice work, BTW.

However, being the nitpicker that I am, I saw a couple things that could be a little better:

1. The girl needs to be lit by a harsher light source. Since the sharp edge of her self-shadow indicates she is lit by the same source as the rest of the scene, her skin should be nearly as washed out as the rocks behind her.
2. She's not casting a shadow. Again, since she's casting a shadow on herself, she should cast a shadow on the rocks in the water.
3. She's not disturbing the water. The water around her feet looks too placid - it should be more heavily distorted by water ripples curling around her feet.

So I went in with our favorite program, and tried to do just that, and I think, for the most part, I was successful. There's only three layers of actual photo manipulation, and another for my little "modified by deadguy" logo. Tell me what you think.

Ok, I've modified it a little, so that there's a bit better rippling in the water, and a more realistic double shadow - one for the rocks and a more transparent one for the water, since the water isn't completely clear, it should receive a bit of shadow...

nothing new to say, just this is a fantastic piece of work all around. I don't really care for Poser work usually, but every now and then I get stunned. Good job mah friend.

Hi deadguy... Before I say anything, I want you to realize that I think this is a excellent image, and you have done some fine work that you should be proud of. The points I want to make are not a criticism, just some ideas that I think might help improve on a great start. When I look at the model she still seems super-imposed on the photograph. This has to do mostly with the way the light is interacting with her skin. normally when you shoot a model outdoors their skin will reflect some of the hues around them. The model here is pretty evenly toned throughout. It might help to create gradient mask coming up her legs to get a hint of the green being reflected up from the water below her. I would also consider adjusting the levels on her separate from the rest of the image, so that the contrast levels on her match the photo a little closer. If you look at the area right below her buttocks, the shadow is gray. I believe that when you get this to almost black, then the rest of the tonality and shadowing will be right. The last two things I will point out are real quick... The small rock in the water in front of her casts a split shadow. I think it would lend a bit more realism if she did too. I would also consider adding some film grain to the whole image to give it a deeper sense of texture. just a real light amount at a low intensity should do the trick. Like I said in the beginning, I am not trying to criticise your work in any way... This piece stands on its own as is. I am just trying to be helpful, and give you an honest opinion with some thoughts to back it up. Alpha

No offense taken - this isn't my image. Sure, I may have tweaked things to make the original look more realistic (and for the comments improving that adjustment I'm thankful), but the real credit goes to monteb. This was up as an illustration for him, so he could see what my comments meant. I'm sure he'll appreciate all the commentary, because it'll help him make an even better composite later. Does it look pretty good now? (deadguy mutters that he should be spending time working on his website, instead of being a perfectionist) =^)

Perhaps a slightly less dark shadow that matched the angle and darkness of the rock shadow would be worth a little time off from web mastering... There is no deadguy named Monteb in the image either ; )

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/gallery.ez?ByArtist=Yes&Artist=monteb

(5 seconds later) Done. (a blend mode swith is a wonderful thing.) You know - looking at it, there's actually no easy way for me to recomposite this image to my satisfaction. The lighting isn't matched. it initially looks it, but if you look at the outcropping to her left, the face we can see is almost entirely in shadow, with only closer parts stepping into the sunlight again. On the model, however, the sun touches the back of her knee, and wraps round her body above the buttock - a face that should be receiving shadow. The problem is that the sun is at the correct angle looking into the frame, but if we were to look down onto it, the light of the scene would be coming in at about 2:00, and the light falling on the model is coming in from about 3:00. It could be fixed, but I think I've done enough damage to it. If you want to try, I suggest grabbing the original image from his page.

Hey! I really like the picture. Its very nice! But the girl's shadow isnt pointing the same direction as the stoned. but otherwise a wicked pic! KEEP UP THE VERY GOOD WORK!

Yeah, but a barely mismatched shadow compared to the scene is going to be a lot less noticable than one that is mismatched to the girl's lighting. If I match her (and since I can't change her lighting without some effort), and it looks right, then the scene will look better than if I match the scene, and don't change her. To match the scene, her shadow needs to be a little shorter, and the top a bit further down than the bottom.