Good job - you really brought a lot of vibrance back to it, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's what the original print looked like.

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.

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.

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) =^)

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...

Follow Quinn's suggestion, but press ctrl+h (isn't it option+h on macs?) to hide extras, and you won't have that annoying inverted block obscuring your layout (or your text).

make sure you use the keypad numbers for this instead of the top row

Sure, feel free.

A tutorial? I can tell you a little more about the steps I took, but a tutorial for three steps seems silly. There's actually very little I did. Filter > Blur > Smart Blur - This is the bulk of what did the work. The settings I used are here, and by no means are they the best - just what I came up with in a minute: radius = 3.0 threshold = 25 quality = low mode - normal History Brush - setting the history marker one step above the smart blur, and then painting with the History brush lets you 'paint' an undo where you need it - in this case, the Smart Blur destroyed the fine grain in the hair and the eyes. Smudge = Smart Blur induces blocky edges along lines of contrast, so the use of a small brush and Smudge lets you remove them without reclaiming the grain of the pre-Smart Blur stage. If you use a small brush with History Brush, then you can carefully go along the edges and skip this step all together.

Glad I could help. =^)

I might have something similar - I'm sure you can get the rest with additional filters or selection.

Filter > Render > Clouds
Filter > Pixelate > Crystalize (about 45)
Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges (width = 3, brightness = 7, smoothness = 8)
Filter > Distort > Ocean Ripple (size = 1, magnitude = 3)
Image > Adjust > Levels (enough to bring up some highlights and midtones)
Select > Color range (pick the black as your background color, add the darkest strands, and raise up the Fuzziness to about 75)
Filter > Blur > Gaussian (radius = 2.0 pixels)

You mean like this?

Smart Blur (radius = 3.0, threshold = 25, quality = low, mode - normal) = smoothing
History Brush = reclaiming detail in hair and eyes
Smudge = ridding yourself of some of those nasty jaggies induced by smart blur