Pathway

[tuggie]

Congrats to Angel for a well deserved win and to all the other contestants for very good entries!

Carrying on from yesterday, the comments on mine all said the same thing, not enough shadow and the lead horse seems to float, very true, although I did add some shadow, but obviously not enough. My main concern is the horses hooves, how can I make them touch the ground?

Thanks in advance.

Tuggie

[Dave]

Linky (http://www.pixeladdiction.com/Contest_entry.php?id=6248&cad=625&type=c)

I'll let the experts try to explain how to add shadows and the like. I think you had the makings of a nice image there myself. Pay close attention to lighting levels as well as shadows, The rider in the centre has a sunlit face but is in shadow within the overall picture, you would have to correct that by darkening the sunlit area using a light soft burn brush.

[burndog]

well tuggie, to be honest this one would be tough to do because of the difference between lighting in the overall scene and the elements you have added. Whenever you add something to one image from another look for a source pic that has as many of the following similar characteristics as possible.

Lighting...direction of lighting, brightness of lighting, general quality of lighting ( subdued or very focused and harsh for example) Colour temperature of lighting ( for example a person who pic is taken indoors without flash will be quite yellow red...if you insert them outdoors on a sunny day they will look odd)

Shadows...density of shadow (this relates to quality of lighting above)

Overall contrast ( brightest and darkest areas about equal) of course this can be adjusted )

Sharpness

Amount of detail ( a very low resolution image placed in a very high resolution image will really stand out) or grain

Colour balance


There are likely many more characteristics. The idea is to match source pics as close as possible to start with and then to work to adjust what does not match as best you can.

The drop shadow command will seldom work in any situation so I would forget about using it. The idea of the drop shadow is to make the subject appear to be floating off the page, it can work great with text, but that is about it.


As far as your shadows go, take a look at the original horse pic and study the shadows there. You may even want to use the lasso tool and make a general selection of the shadow and then once made, feather the selection a bit and then on a new layer above the background and under the horse layer fill with black at 100%. Then simply adjust this shadow layer's opacity until it looks right.

To sum all of this up, in my opinion the source pic you selected is really the problem, as Jaygre mentioned the difference in lighting is maybe too drastic to keep the illusion of reality.

Great job on the colorizing of the seasonal change, but the mismatching source pic of the horse has done you in.

Keep entering and asking away, the best way to learn, and that is afterall what we are here for.

[tuggie]

Thanks Burndog for both answers.

I'll keep plugging away and hopefully get better results. The long winter days in Canada are great for this! only it's like spring here today 4c!

Tuggie

[libra]

Hard to type without playing with the image here and there are probably lots of way to do it Tuggie. The built in drop shadow is a definite no-no. If you look at your image, there is lovely depth to the trees in the foreground which recedes nicely into the centre of the picture into the distance, but there is no depth on the road in the foreground at all.

One way is to deceive the eye optically would be to add depth to that foreground road to bring it closer, even if you create a blank layer between the road and the horses, add a gradient of black to nothing (only about a third of the picture, mask and paint out areas if necessary to follow the road and on the horses legs...), set it to multiply and change the opacity accordingly - it would assist with 'grounding' the horses.

To make them 'fit' into the picture, the depth of shadows on the horses would need to be intensified as well, remember with them being that close to the foreground, they would have to be sharp as well - at least as sharp with as much detail as the trees in the foreground are...

Hope that helps, I know what I would do, but explaining it isn't easy ;)

[tuggie]

Thanks Libra.

Things like adding layers with gradiants would never occur to me, this is where you guys skills really help us PS challenged types!

Tuggie

[tuggie]

Hi.

I've tried blending the horse in again, couldn't do the colour thingy, but not needed here.

I turned the rider round and created a better shadow, also added some unsharp mask. It all seems to help.

Tuggie

[Jaygre]

That looks MUCH better, tuggie. If you want your shadow to appear more diffuse (and it's on its own layer), apply a filter>blur> gaussian. Play with the sliders a little. Then if it's still too dark, lower the opacity on the layer.

[tuggie]

Thanks Joanie.

I won't have much time to play in the next couple of weeks, our daughter is moving out and between celebrations we have to pack, clean and move stuff. It's more fun playing with photos!

Tuggie

[Ez2bFish]

Tuggie, that sure looks better. Just keep in mind the original source image (light source) in that photo is going left to right....so the shadow on your horse should be on the other side. i didn't re-read all of this thread, so if you already explained that just ignore my comment. Nice improvement!