"Inner Demon" conceptual fine art composite, C&C really needed!

FITBMX · Jul 31, 2018

I have been working on I have been working on for a quite a while now, I already scrapped the edit once and started over. The background was built from scratch and a pain in the neck! LOL I am actually quite proud of the room.

I took a photo of a cardboard box and expanded it to fit my frame, then I duplicated the same texture several times and mirrored them so they made the pattern. After that I skewered them to match the box, it worked really well.
But I still can't get the subject to blend to the background, something is still off but I can't pinpoint it. So any help would be great!

FITBMX · Aug 3, 2018

I did some color correction work.

vintagesnaps · Aug 3, 2018

I think it might be the proportion; the size of the figures just isn't believable, they don't look like they belong in a room that size. They look too miniature/lilliputian.

smoke665 · Aug 3, 2018

IMO in addition to the proportion mentioned above the short answer is light. The direction, shadows, and the amount are off. The amount of negative space to the right seems slightly much as well.

FITBMX · Aug 3, 2018

vintagesnaps said:
I think it might be the proportion; the size of the figures just isn't believable, they don't look like they belong in a room that size. They look too miniature/lilliputian.

smoke665 said:
IMO in addition to the proportion mentioned above the short answer is light. The direction, shadows, and the amount are off. The amount of negative space to the right seems slightly much as well.

Thanks, both of you for the feedback!

I will feather the shadows and drop the opacity a little.

Studio7Four · Aug 8, 2018

For me what jumps out as "off" is the lighting on the person standing on the ground. The shadows throughout the image clearly indicate strong directional lighting from image-right (including the front of the standing person's jeans), but his face and arms are brightly lit. To match the lighting as apparent on his jeans, his face and arms should be in pretty dark shadow (and then, with negligible detail there, is this composition worth it?).

FITBMX · Aug 10, 2018

Studio7Four said:
For me what jumps out as "off" is the lighting on the person standing on the ground. The shadows throughout the image clearly indicate strong directional lighting from image-right (including the front of the standing person's jeans), but his face and arms are brightly lit. To match the lighting as apparent on his jeans, his face and arms should be in pretty dark shadow (and then, with negligible detail there, is this composition worth it?).

Thanks!

I backed off on the shadow of the "Demon" so it is more feathered. The lighting has been a real pain in the neck on this one, because the subject it too lit but I don't want to darken him and lose detail. Maybe I should add a hanging land or a torch.

Here is the last version I did.

smoke665 · Aug 10, 2018

Overall the second was better so far as the direction of light, but the shadows lack details, and the overall image seems flat. I'm still not sure that the original crop is the best. If it's about having the corner on the right I'd split the image and bring the corner to the left. Anyhow here is the same image cropped different, with a few adjustments to brighten it. The shadows were brought up to gain detail, and the selective curve tool to bring up the blues in the shadows, and the red to add a little color to the skin tones. I added not quite 3/4 of a stop to the exposure, but I'm thinking it could have just a tad more.

FITBMX · Aug 10, 2018

smoke665 said:
Overall the second was better so far as the direction of light, but the shadows lack details, and the overall image seems flat. I'm still not sure that the original crop is the best. If it's about having the corner on the right I'd split the image and bring the corner to the left. Anyhow here is the same image cropped different, with a few adjustments to brighten it. The shadows were brought up to gain detail, and the selective curve tool to bring up the blues in the shadows, and the red to add a little color to the skin tones. I added not quite 3/4 of a stop to the exposure, but I'm thinking it could have just a tad more.

Thank you so much for taking to time to do an edit!

smoke665 · Aug 11, 2018

FITBMX said:
Thank you so much for taking to time to do an edit!

It wasn't much, sometimes I find I can respond more intelligently by actually working with an image. One thing I didn't do is address the light direction issue. If you bring the exposure up it isn't so noticeable but if you leave it dark and moody it is. The demon on the left has light on face and top/side on arms and the side/front of pants. The man on right has lighting on face and arms, but not on pants, and then his back is also lit? I didn't have time to pull it into Ps, but one thing you might try is adding a shaft or shafts of light from above as if they were coming through cell windows.

FITBMX · Aug 11, 2018

smoke665 said:
It wasn't much, sometimes I find I can respond more intelligently by actually working with an image. One thing I didn't do is address the light direction issue. If you bring the exposure up it isn't so noticeable but if you leave it dark and moody it is. The demon on the left has light on face and top/side on arms and the side/front of pants. The man on right has lighting on face and arms, but not on pants, and then his back is also lit? I didn't have time to pull it into Ps, but one thing you might try is adding a shaft or shafts of light from above as if they were coming through cell windows.

I know what you mean, it is really hard to explain something when you haven't done it yourself.

You are right about the lighting, I think I will add a window, lamp, and shaft of light. I really don't want to black out the face of the man on the right.
I wish I could have just shot on location, but I was lacking a large stone room! LOL
Thanks again.