Portrait Composite, C&C Please.

[julianliu]

I shot a photo of the girl, YuBing, by the lake yesterday evening. Then I made a composite of it with some other photo to add some interesting foreground and background to it. What do you think? Any comments will be appreciated!

 

[tirediron]

Not bad; the clipping mask is a bit rough around the feet, and the lighting looks odd to me, but I suspect that 99.9% of non-photographers wouldn't see anything amiss.

 

[SnappingShark]

I keep getting drawn from her to the sun. 90% of time spent on the sun, 8% on her blue dress and 2% on the face I'd say.

 

[MiFleur]

Something is off
The style of the clothing and the shoes don't go with the mood. Technically the shot is ok, and it does not look bad, but it seem unbelievable to me.
The light source ( the sun) is on the shady side of her face.

 

[Chrispyphotos]

Something is off
The style of the clothing and the shoes don't go with the mood. Technically the shot is ok, and it does not look bad, but it seem unbelievable to me.
The light source ( the sun) is on the shady side of her face.

This!

It just looks weird. Maybe if she was in some sand? Without the sweater. (though i'm sure she wanted to have her shoulders covered up in whatever picture you took her from! )

 

[Designer]

Not bad, but the sunset should be on her front side instead of having the sunset occur behind her.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

but if a strobe was used to light her from the front like a lot of photographers do for sunset photos, would it not look like this? Wouldnt the strobe kill the ambient light and create shadow on the opposing side?

 

[julianliu]

Not bad; the clipping mask is a bit rough around the feet, and the lighting looks odd to me, but I suspect that 99.9% of non-photographers wouldn't see anything amiss.

I agree. the part of her feet is most challenging.

I'd like to hear you guys, the photographer's opinions. The non-photographers may not see anything, but they may not like it, just do not know what's wrong

 

[julianliu]

I keep getting drawn from her to the sun. 90% of time spent on the sun, 8% on her blue dress and 2% on the face I'd say.

You are right, I should have waited till the sun set at or below the horizon so it won't be distracting (if only she could wait a little longer to go to the restroom). But I got your point.

 

[julianliu]

Something is off
The style of the clothing and the shoes don't go with the mood. Technically the shot is ok, and it does not look bad, but it seem unbelievable to me.
The light source ( the sun) is on the shady side of her face.

I used a strobe on the camera right, so the main light source should be the strobe. The sun is a distraction here.

 

[julianliu]

Not bad, but the sunset should be on her front side instead of having the sunset occur behind her.

Designer, I would disagree. I am always a fan of sun behind the person, it just adds more drama. Though whether the photo turns out to be good or not depends on how I shoot. For this photo, as you and others pointed out, the sun is a distraction.

 

[julianliu]

Something is off
The style of the clothing and the shoes don't go with the mood. Technically the shot is ok, and it does not look bad, but it seem unbelievable to me.
The light source ( the sun) is on the shady side of her face.

This!

It just looks weird. Maybe if she was in some sand? Without the sweater. (though i'm sure she wanted to have her shoulders covered up in whatever picture you took her from! )

I do not know what you mean about the shoulders covered up. I attached the original photo below though.

 

[julianliu]

Hey, guys, below is the original photo. Now after you see it, any other thoughts.
I agree it is not a well arranged setting/framing due to the big sun. That's one main taken away I got from the responses from you guys.

 

[julianliu]

but if a strobe was used to light her from the front like a lot of photographers do for sunset photos, would it not look like this? Wouldnt the strobe kill the ambient light and create shadow on the opposing side?

Good point. It was not much shadow there in the original photo. So I neglected it!!!
But I think if shadow from the strobe was added, maybe just slight, may make the photo more believable. Thanks!

 

[SoulfulRecover]

but if a strobe was used to light her from the front like a lot of photographers do for sunset photos, would it not look like this? Wouldnt the strobe kill the ambient light and create shadow on the opposing side?

Good point. It was not much shadow there in the original photo. So I neglected it!!!
But I think if shadow from the strobe was added, maybe just slight, may make the photo more believable. Thanks!

I guess what I was trying to say is that if you have an off camera flash lighting the person, then the sun is not the main source of the light. So the model would be lit how it is in the photo and the back side (where the sun is) would look like the shadow side. Your original image shows exactly what I was getting at. I had thought that maybe the photo of the model was shot in studio then composited into a beach scene but it was beach scene to beach scene using an off camera flash for the model. So to me the lighting situation looks realistic as the sun side of her should be in shadow. Maybe I mis read what was said earlier and Im sure I could have worded my original statement better. :blushing: