Styled Shoot - Clouds Composite (C&C Please?)

[MichaelHenson]

I've never professed to be a Photoshop guru...

Just attempted my first sky replacement and could use some critique. I basically cropped out everything technically difficult to replace (trees were to the left of the building...) and am left with this. I don't hate it and am going to step away to allow myself time to critique it with fresh eyes in a bit, but would love some critique!

Thoughts?
Style Wedding Shoot #1-3572-Edit with Clouds2 by Michael Henson, on Flickr

 

[vintagesnaps]

Something about the building against that sky looks fake, it made me think of a cardboard cutout. I think it's the left side particularly. The sky looks more like it was sponge painted, seems too blue - the scene doesn't look like a sunny day (no shadows), was this evening? a rainy day? I ask because lights are on, I see some light hitting what looks like wet sidewalk lower left. Why are the lettering and the foreground both so blurry?? I'm not sure what you were going for with this.

edit - Was this shot the same night as the one of them kissing under the umbrella? I was noticing that sky, seems like this one should be comparable since it looks like the series got progressively later in the evening. This building looks like it had a heckuva dark interior.

 

[MichaelHenson]

That's what I'm trying to avoid!

It was a rainy morning...I ran out after the showers stopped and snapped a few shots from across the road. Blurriness = Tilt shift filter...not sure I'm sold on it though.

The inside was ridiculously dark. Everything was shot with OCF because the lighting was brutal. Makes for some moody photos (which I like) but meant a lot of lugging my lighting around...

Different edit...
Style Wedding Shoot #1-3572-Edit with Clouds3 by Michael Henson, on Flickr

 

[tirediron]

Love the concept, but not the execution. The lighting on the building is just too far off the ambient for the sky for this to work IMO.

 

[MichaelHenson]

Love the concept, but not the execution. The lighting on the building is just too far off the ambient for the sky for this to work IMO.

Other than that, does it work? I mean, that seems a matter of either brightening or darkening one or the other in order for it to match. Which should be fairly straightforward, I would think?

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[dennybeall]

I like the second much better than the first, however the concept just doesn't do it for me. Just too much dark oof building around the small scene of the couple.

 

[tirediron]

Okay, part of what's bothering me (and I agree the second is an improvement) is WHY can we see the sky behind the couple, but all of the other window are almost completely dark? As well, I would expect that if I could see the sky through the building, it would appear darker.

 

[jcdeboever]

It has a neat toy look to it but then there is that halo around the edge of the building. Maybe if you could zoom in close on the second one and clone out the gray band along the top edge of building. I did a lazy clone edit on the first peak on the left building to give you an idea.

 

[MichaelHenson]

Sorry for my absence. @tirediron - There was only one window on the other side of the building. The rest of those windows look into a loft area that has a brick wall on the other side (the wall that window is in).

I went back and fixed the halo. I noticed that too...
Style Wedding Shoot #1-3572-Edit with Clouds5 by Michael Henson, on Flickr

But, since my post, other feedback I've received is that it's a creepy photo. Definitely not what I was going for, so I think I'm going to scratch it from the set and chalk the hours I've spent messing with it up to experience.