chriscaldwell Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 Hello there, I'm trying to put an item on top of a swimming pool so it appears to be floating and realistic looking. I tried a few things, like applying a blur, and experimenting with outer shadow in the FX panel, but don't trust my eyes to see if it looks realistic. Is there a technique/trick that would help me get the perspective and realism a bit better, or does this look okay to you guys, or perhaps can it be improved upon? Thank you as always for any help. I've attached my mockup/screenshot, the .png product, and the swimming pool pic. Chris another floatron.afphoto pool.afphoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl123 Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 That water is very hard to work with henryanthony and chriscaldwell 1 1 Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henryanthony Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 @chriscaldwell Shadows are the glue that hold the world together. To my eye, the shadow of the floating device is gray and should be similar in color and should be affected by the ripples and refractions as the water. Google "floating in a pool" and you will see what I mean. Same goes for the part of the device below the black ring. I think they look good but, why are there patches of blue on the pool deck? Overall a very cool, surreal looking image. I like the sparkles too. They add a sense of fun and fantasy. chriscaldwell 1 Quote Affinity Photo and Design V1. Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. Dell Precision 7710 laptop. Intel Core i7. RAM 32GB. NVIDIA Quadro M4000M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chriscaldwell Posted August 22, 2023 Author Share Posted August 22, 2023 Thank you Carl123 and henryanthony! I really appreciate your input and help. Sometimes, it's hard to be objective with your own projects, so this is so very helpful. I was wondering Carl, can you please send the affinity file you created? Did you just create an oval, fill with black, and then gaussian blur it? Also, is there a formula/technique to knowing how far away to move the shadow to get the proper shadow effect? I guess I need to train my eyes better. I'm thinking the shadow on the ladder is the guide, but I feel like I'm always a bit off. Whereas, you nailed immediately. I attached another example to see if I'm more accurate in this shadow placement, just wondering if it should be more to the right of the floating device. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you, Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl123 Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 File is attached I don't know if there is any formula for placing the shadow, I just go with what I like the look of. Sometimes taking into account the other shadows in the image (if any) or the light direction pool2.afphoto chriscaldwell 1 Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chriscaldwell Posted August 22, 2023 Author Share Posted August 22, 2023 Thank you very much, Carl. I see there are a lot of little things you did in the file, and I hope to be able to learn from it how to approach this in the future. carl123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walt.farrell Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 26 minutes ago, chriscaldwell said: I attached another example to see if I'm more accurate in this shadow placement, The shadows for the two objects are not consistent; they show different locations for the light source. For the round object, the light source is centered left-to-right in the image, but below center in the top-to-bottom direction. However, the light source for the floating rectangular object is far to the left, and further down than for the other object. Also, the rectangular shadow tapers unrealistically, I think. chriscaldwell 1 Quote -- Walt Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases PC: Desktop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Laptop: Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU iPad: iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.6.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard Mac: 2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 39 minutes ago, chriscaldwell said: I attached another example to see if I'm more accurate in this shadow placement, just wondering if it should be more to the right of the floating device. I would say that the offset of the shadow should be about the same for the device as it is for the air bed, in other words much further to the right and maybe up a bit. You can measure the distance from the lop-left of the bed to its shadow top-left and then use the same distance for the offset of the floating device’s shadow. 9 minutes ago, walt.farrell said: Also, the rectangular shadow tapers unrealistically, I think. If the image is from real life then the pool could be changing depth across its length, which could account for the ‘taper’ (I think). Maybe the size of the shadow of the floating device needs to have this taken into mind also. walt.farrell 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David in Яuislip Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 38 minutes ago, GarryP said: I would say that the offset of the shadow should be about the same for the device as it is for the air bed Yep, so would I So I had a quick go and it looks pretty ropey Quote Microsoft Windows 11 Home, Intel i7-1360P 2.20 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Intel Iris Xe Affinity Photo - 24/05/20, Affinity Publisher - 06/12/20, KTM Superduke - 27/09/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 36 minutes ago, David in Яuislip said: 1 hour ago, GarryP said: I would say that the offset of the shadow should be about the same for the device as it is for the air bed Yep, so would I So I had a quick go and it looks pretty ropey The head/left edge/corners of the airbed is probably more above the water level than the round objects edge. Means, the different object heights may get considered too (and e.g. move the shadow of the round object a bit closer to it.) (... compare the shadow of the hat) chriscaldwell 1 Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 3 hours ago, GarryP said: I would say that the offset of the shadow should be about the same for the device as it is for the air bed.... But if the depth of the pool is not the same below both items I think the shadow offsets would not be either.... chriscaldwell 1 Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.3 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 All 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David in Яuislip Posted August 22, 2023 Share Posted August 22, 2023 2 hours ago, thomaso said: compare the shadow of the hat Yes, umbra, penumbra and twaddle, twaddle being my second choice chriscaldwell 1 Quote Microsoft Windows 11 Home, Intel i7-1360P 2.20 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Intel Iris Xe Affinity Photo - 24/05/20, Affinity Publisher - 06/12/20, KTM Superduke - 27/09/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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