Photoshop project I'm working on

[ThePresence]

Inspired by fuzzybabybunny's impressive thread showing the power of Photoshop.

This is a PS project I'm currently working on. I'm a graphic designer. I removed all the text, because I can't get too specific what it's for. It's for a cover of something, whatever, it doesn't really matter. I just wanted to show the technique and hear your input.

This is where I'm up to. The design is basically finished, the typography is what I'm still working on.

here's the breakdown of what I did:

The guy on the bottom was created by combining a number of pictures.
I started with this picture.
I combined his face with this one to get the look I was going for. Then I dressed him in these clothing.

The guy above him is a couple of images too.
I started with this guy.
His face was not the look I needed, so I replaced his face with this dude's face.

For the dude above that I started with this. The face was completely off so I switched his eyes with this guy's. I loved how that came out.

The top guy started with this guy. I replaced the lower part of his face with this guy's.

For the background I started with this stone wall. I put in this window.

The rest is just photoshop.

Tell me what you think!

 

[yobarman]

I'd be interested in the finished product. I think the window looks a little off though from the perspective of the rest of the wall / outside.

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: yobarman
I'd be interested in the finished product. I think the window looks a little off though from the perspective of the rest of the wall / outside.

That's what I originally though too, but I was convinced that it would be possible to have the wall work like that.

 

[Injury]

Some decent photoshop skills...

- I hope it's not 72dpi! Please tell me the psd is 300dpi!

- With such a STRONG light coming in, you need to give the people more dramatic shadows and highlights. Use the dodge and burn tools for this.

-The bottoms of the people look like either too simple of a gradient mask or that you just used the eraser tool with soft edges to make the bottoms fade away. Unless this is intentional, you should make them fading into black and make the wall behind them solid black. Things don't really fade into a visible background.

 

[ThePresence]

Originally posted by: Injury
Some decent photoshop skills...

- I hope it's not 72dpi! Please tell me the psd is 300dpi!

- With such a STRONG light coming in, you need to give the people more dramatic shadows and highlights. Use the dodge and burn tools for this.

-The bottoms of the people look like either too simple of a gradient mask or that you just used the eraser tool with soft edges to make the bottoms fade away. Unless this is intentional, you should make them fading into black and make the wall behind them solid black. Things don't really fade into a visible background.

Of course it's 300 DPI, lol.
The light looks much stronger in RGB, the PSD is CMYK and it doesn't have as strong an effect.
The bottom fade is intentionally like that, it looks much better in hi-res.
Thanks for your comments.

 

[ThePresence]

Bump

 

[911paramedic]

The top ray of light is aimed upwards, as if the sun is below the horizon. You should also burn in, or put a black line, drop the opacity, and displace it on the wall as a shadow for the bars.

Looks good so far, they are fun to play with eh?

 

[Injury]

Also on the fade for the guys, you might try making it a bit more drawn out...

I think the one thing that is bothering me about the picture is that the levels/colors for the bg and the guys seem very contrasted.

Try taking about 7-10% magenta out of them and see how it looks.