Digital Photography project

[zack1bt]

Hello, I'm Brandon and I'm currently finishing up a Digital Photography class at my college. I took a bunch of photos of my friends' models, and will be compositing those models into some exciting or thematic backgrounds. The following photos will be the 11 final images I chose to work with, first in the raw form, then with some editing and altering, and then the completed composite.

Thanks for viewing!




(All works belong to their respective owners, no use of these images without my permission, blah blah blah)

[zack1bt]

[zack1bt]

Before


After


Before


After

[zack1bt]

[zack1bt]

[zack1bt]

I had already started removing the white space in this photo, which is why she looks sorta like a cardboard cut-out.

[zack1bt]

[zack1bt]

And the first one is done!

What do you think?

[zack1bt]

[Lanz]

I think it's an interesting idea, but you'll need backgrounds that match the lighting of the models. In the case of the above pic, you can see based on the buildings in the background that the sun is opposite the viewer, high in the sky. The shadows you've mapped in also fit this, obviously, but the light on the actual models is clearly coming from the front (flash of the camera, I presume), so they look out of place.

You want to either find backgrounds that have the sun coming from behind the viewer (or are just in-doors), or build a light box to take the pictures in that neutralizes the hot-spots and shading enough that you can edit in your own shading.

It's a cool idea, though, and it's close. Lighting is a big big deal, though. It's one of the major things that will make an edited scene look 'off'.

edit: The khador one wasn't showing up when I posted that, but now that I see it, basically the same comments apply.

[zack1bt]

Yeah, I can see what you mean. My photography professor likes this psuedo-realism though, so I'm not too worried. If I had more time and patience, I'd work on fixing it. Maybe I'll revisit these later. Thanks for the comment, the advice is spot on!

Here are the final 6 that I'll be presenting to my class.

[zack1bt]

[Lanz]

I like the Karchev one. The lighting in the background is mostly over-head, so it works well enough with the lighting on Karchev due to the slant of his chassis likely taking about that much light anyways. That one probably looks the most 'realistic' in terms of composition. Also, of course, the focus of the picture is off-center as well, with a sense of movement and action, which always looks more interesting.

[zack1bt]

Thanks! Yeah, I think I like that one the best.

[Frozt]

I'm presuming you are using photoshop for this.

My nitpick is you need to clean up some of the lines on the charger and the lancer. the yellow lines around them ruin a little of the believability

With Karchev you may want to tone down the reflectiveness of the top of the jack chassis, the shadows in the background put the light behind him and I think you want to keep with this notion.

Granted I'm still a rookie here in visual effects but I hope my attempt at critiquing was more helpful then annoying ^-^

[Lachlan the Mad]

With Karchev you may want to tone down the reflectiveness of the top of the jack chassis, the shadows in the background put the light behind him and I think you want to keep with this notion.

Agreed, Karchev is really too bright for that scene. It's a great pose though, looks like he's speeding through the city. He obviously set the Arcantrik Turbine to +2 SPD and Pathfinder...

I also think that the bases are too obvious in the Cryx pictures. I'd cut them out and have the models "standing" on the picture itself.

Lastly, I'm not sure about the exhaust smoke in some of the pictures. It works well in the Karchev pic and the two Cryx pictures, where there's a colour contrast, but the smoke in Sorscha and Styker's pictures is a bit grey-on-grey. I'd either make it lighter in colour or add a hint of red from the flames in the 'jack's engine.