Photo questions

[MartinL]

Yesterday I had to idea of playing with one of my photo I did in fall 2017. I had the idea of mixing a fictionnal character with a real life photo. In the process I learned something new which is always a good thing. I learned to cut and copy my character from a picture and paste it on my photo. Now I have no idea what to do to make the character blend in the photo. Here's what I did so far. What should I do next?

[v_kyr]

Play with layer blending modes and the opacity settings.

[Grazie]

I’d look at the white balance prior to blending. The Forest is kinda warm green, whilst the character is more cool blue. I’d be getting the character closer to the scenery.

[MEB]

Hi MartinL,

Usually most problems come from differences in the light sources/positions between the original image and the element/subject you want to insert - which are translated in shadows pointing in different directions (and shading of the subject) and differences in colour balance/contrast between the original and inserted item. Depending on the images/inserted item, sometimes noise, different resolution and other issues may also cause problems.

 

You can use Live Adjustments to cope with most contrast/colour changes, however shadows must be built from scratch unless the light source/position of both image and inserted item/element(s) match.

In the case of your image the light source/position of both isn't that bad: on the background image the light comes from the top, while on the character it comes from the top left however It has no projected shadow (on the floor) which is one of the things that will help to integrate it better witihn the background. The colours of the character also seem way to blueish (and a little dark) compared to the background/light. Those would be the first things i would take care off.

[MartinL]

I'm a total beginner at modifying photos and even taking them (I'm better at taking than modifying lol) so all those advices are a bit over my capabilities so I'll check them out and ask more questions. Thank you for the advices.

[Pšenda]

17 minutes ago, MartinL said:

I'm a total beginner

You would definitely like the Photo Workbook :-)

[MartinL]

11 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

You would definitely like the Photo Workbook :-)

Not available in french.

[v_kyr]

Some things are also (more or less good) explained and showed in the online help (French Online help).

[MEB]

Hi MartinL,

Are you already aware of the Official Affinity Photo Video Tutorials here?

They cover most of Affinity Photo features/functionality.

[MartinL]

4 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi MartinL,

Are you already aware of the Official Affinity Photo Video Tutorials here?

They cover most of Affinity Photo features/functionality.

I've been subscribed to Affinity YouTube channel since I bought the software. I subscribed to Affinity Revolution channel this morning.

[Wikinger]

Bonjour.

Pour rester simple, vous avez un personnage aux tons froids dans un décor aux tons chauds.

Donc, corriger la balance sur le personnage. 

 

Comme MEB vous explique, il faut ajouter les ombres légères au personnage.  

Ce personnage implanté, en lévitation, un point difficile à traiter et très courant.

Placer le personnage dans tout petit plus haut dans l'image, afin de laisser un peu plus d'espace en avant.

C'est courageux de présenter vos premiers essais. Bravo!

[MartinL]

Ok this is what I did so far. I started by taking a better picture of him in a more lighted area. I added a shadow below him and added gaussian blur to it. I added a white balance filter to make his color more orangish (hope I typed it correct). At this point I'm not sure if I should add 0.1px of gaussian blur to the entire character to make him blend a little bit more. So far I like the result but I would like your opinions too. Thank you.

[toltec]

Very good 

[Wikinger]

Il y a 37 minutes, MartinL a dit:

Ok c'est ce que j'ai fait jusqu'ici. ........... . À ce stade, je ne suis pas sûr si je devrais ajouter 0.1px de flou gaussien à l'ensemble du personnage pour le faire se fondre un peu plus. Jusqu'à présent, j'aime le résultat mais j'ai aussi vos opinions. .........

 

Good evening

The resumption of your work is, in my opinion, very successful.

The character is in perfect harmony with the environment. The character's shadow is natural. 

This levitation effect is no longer felt. it's beautiful. 

You took the character away and thought to reduce his size. Congratulations!

No, don't add any Gaussian blur to the character. A landscape image must be sharp in all shots, so must the character.

The work is done.

Yours sincerely. 

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (Sorry)

[MartinL]

2 minutes ago, Wikinger said:

 

Good evening

The resumption of your work is, in my opinion, very successful.

The character is in perfect harmony with the environment. The character's shadow is natural. 

This levitation effect is no longer felt. it's beautiful. 

You took the character away and thought to reduce his size. Congratulations!

No, don't add any Gaussian blur to the character. A landscape image must be sharp in all shots, so must the character.

The work is done.

Yours sincerely. 

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (Sorry)

Je suis francophone.

[Wikinger]

Il y a 3 minutes, MartinL a dit:

Je suis francophone.

Ahh! 

Super! Je me sens pas seul 

[Pšenda]

27 minutes ago, Wikinger said:

The character's shadow is natural. 

 

Osobně bych nedělal ten stín tak výrazný. Neodpovídá to světelným poměrům okolí.

Cesta je zastíněna stromy, a světlo je tak rozptýlené listy. Takže tam nikde není žádné přímé slunce, které by mohlo vrhat tak silný/tmavý stín.

[smadell]

Please take this as (hopefully) helpful, not as negative criticism. But, I still think the character looks pasted in rather than like he was there all along. To me, the character is still too blue, too dark, and too contrasty. I downloaded your second picture, created a second layer called "Character" by masking out the character, and added a bunch of adjustments and live filters. Mostly, I warmed up the color, and de-emphasized the shadows (with a Levels adjustment and a Shadows and Highlights filter). I also went ahead and added a 0.1 pixel Gaussian blur to the character, because the surrounding forest is not as focused as the character is, and this also makes him stand out as "not real." Here's my take on it (with the Layers panel brought over the picture for info purposes).