haha, i like your avatar. ya, i HDR'd it actually, so i think thats why it looks harsh. and the background was a rather smooth red wall in my bedroom, but i had two lights (just cheap shop lights covered with a translucent white shower curtain for diffusion) pointed up at the camera so i think it accentuated shadows on the bumps in the paint on the wall. but thanks for the comment, anything is helpful!
i'm working on something soon here with sort of the same setup but i'm hoping it'll turn out way better
