Critique Star Wars Composites

rpsmith79

rpsmith79

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Rich
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This whole started out of boredom over the Xmas break (being forced on shutdown from the work) and the persistent rain meaning little actual photography could be done, and a chance to brush up on my Photoshop skills

Any comments/critique welcomed

#1 - Original shot taken in a local park a year or so ago


On The Run by Richard Smith, on Flickr

#2 - Original shot taken at the "Broken Road" near Mam Tor in the Peaks


David & Goliath by Richard Smith, on Flickr

#3 - Original shot taken at the weekend in the recent snow with some Lego figures, and the backdrop was from a shot when i was up on Snowdon last year


Just Another Day on Hoth by Richard Smith, on Flickr

#4 - This was an attempt to try and breath some life into a rather dull (but interesting sky) shot i took the other morning out of the office window


Boba Fett Has Landed by Richard Smith, on Flickr
 
•
Very cool imagery Rich,
your insertion of the Empire's elements
is impressively credible as in #1!
 
Kodiak Qc said:
•
Very cool imagery Rich,
your insertion of the Empire's elements
is impressively credible as in #1!
Click to expand...

Cheers Kodiak, the mist makes it so much easier to blend elements into the background an that first shot
 
Very nice but all flawed. With composites and you really need to get the tones, shadows and the insertion spot of for it to look realistic.

#1 R2 is floating on the grass some blending here with grass sticking up side of the feet sections would be good ... this one is my fav of the set.
#2 Dof has caused this not to look quite right ... the AT-AT is not blended in great to the background so looks like it was just plonked on
#3 Very good one... needs more snow up AT-AT feet but blurred enough to look ok
#4 Death star should be paler like the moon when its in the daytime also Bobba ship needs to be darker and its not casting any shadow at all and doesn't match the focus on the building.

TBH this is better than I can currently do but I have been looking at composites in a lot of detail recently likes of... Adrian Sommeling (https://www.flickr.com/photos/adriansommeling/) and John Wilhelm (https://www.facebook.com/johnwilhelmisaphotoholic/)

Keep working on it as you have some great ideas there :D
 
Tintin124 said:
Very nice but all flawed. With composites and you really need to get the tones, shadows and the insertion spot of for it to look realistic.

#1 R2 is floating on the grass some blending here with grass sticking up side of the feet sections would be good ... this one is my fav of the set.
#2 Dof has caused this not to look quite right ... the AT-AT is not blended in great to the background so looks like it was just plonked on
#3 Very good one... needs more snow up AT-AT feet but blurred enough to look ok
#4 Death star should be paler like the moon when its in the daytime also Bobba ship needs to be darker and its not casting any shadow at all and doesn't match the focus on the building.

TBH this is better than I can currently do but I have been looking at composites in a lot of detail recently likes of... Adrian Sommeling (https://www.flickr.com/photos/adriansommeling/) and John Wilhelm (https://www.facebook.com/johnwilhelmisaphotoholic/)

Keep working on it as you have some great ideas there :D
Click to expand...

Cheers Tintin

I think half of the problem is when you spend hours working on a single image, it's sometimes hard to take a step back and see the flaws you mention (all of which i do agree with), but hadn't really noticed until pointed out

Half of the problem is trying to figure out exactly how to blend the items in, especially on the 2nd image with the AT-AT fallen down, i couldn't for the life of me get the AT-AT to blend with the sky, and still not quite sure what i should be doing to achieve it

I'll take a good look at those links too later on, looks like i've got some research to do myself ;)
 
Looking good, and some good feedback from Bryn, but another thing is to watch the lighting. On the second image, there's strong sunlight on the back/top of the head of the AT-AT, but the slope of the foreground isn't lit as much. I think if it was real, it'd be quite brightly lit up as the sun would be coming onto it at that angle.
 
As said, great stuff (y)
 
EdwardL said:
I'm not really into futuristic "stuff" but I like the backgrounds to these, especially the last one.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, i posted the original shot from the last photo a week or so back, and it went down like a lead balloon, hence part of the reason i have used it as a composite to see if i could make a silk purse from a sow's ear

I'm not sure i managed the silk purse, but i think it's an improvement on the original sow's ear ;)
 
I like these, though I agree with Bryn and others regarding the technicalities. In the last one, the Death Star looks as though it's below the clouds (so scale would be wrong) - adding some clouds in front wouldn't be hard to do.
 
Ok guys, had a bit of time this afternoon to make a couple of tweaks to the above shots, taking on board some of the comments

#5 - Tried to increase the DoF of the AT-AT, with limited success, a slight improvement i hope


David & Goliath by Richard Smith, on Flickr

#6 - Added some shadows to Slave1, darkened the whole shot, rescaled the Death Star and decreased opacity


Boba Fett Has Landed by Richard Smith, on Flickr
 
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