I need help. If I work on a chop for too long, I start to not see what is missing or wrong with the chop. The last two chops that I've done, the Mona Lisa and The Awakening: Mars Edition(the H2H chop), make me feel like they are not finished but don't know what needs to be done to make it better.

I would like to know what you all would have done to either pic. Please be critical. Its been eating at me... Thanks

-Brandan

the first one would be much better if you had textured the cat to appear to be part of the painted canvas. The second is actually very nice, but I think it needs some more shadow and light work to make it blend even better.

voila.

the only reason i didnt vote for the second one in the head to head, was that it just lacked atmosphere. Vary the lighting maybe, add to the composition maybe, it just needed a lil something to make it a more intesting picture.

With the first one, I agree with mason, I thought it was great, but it could have looked a bit more authentic

I had the exact same problem that your having, all you do is ask someone around you what they think of the picture, and they'll probably say it's great but the poportions look slightly odd or something

I woulda perhaps weathered the glass on the second one a bit, give it the appearance of being in a sand storm and being buried, although that would never happen it would give the eye something to look at instead of just a reflection.

Thats exactly what I needed... I'm going to keep working on these to see if I can get it right... Thanks for the comments...

I hope this is helpful.
A sixty second job of what i would like to do to the first chop.

1.made a quick copy and paste selection of top left corner of image.
2.duplicated that new layer three times.
3.lined up the three layers till the covered the whole cat area.
4.merged three layer together then made a spare copy of that layer.
5.turned one copy off...the layer now above, a very quick 100 pixel soft edged eraser to wipe away most of the layer not over cat.
6.clicked on the layer in layers palette to get to layer style.
at bottom of layer styles there are two sliders...the top slider says 'this layer." Hold down alt key to split little slider at right into two sliders, take left one and slide almost to other end.hit OK.
7.desaturate that layer now.at top of layer palette set layer to linear burn and decrease opacity to around 60%.
8 now switch to other saved copy of that layer,quick erase around cat--set layer to 'color' and again about 60%.
9. on original image layer---use sponge tool quickly over cat with a soft brush, 100pixels is fine, and desaturate it till it looks natural to you.
done.

Wow scion... That is amazing... I definately need to explore more and get out of my photoshop box... Very helpful, thank you.

Regarding the second one. If you notice the shadows on the rocks, it is a hard shadow and the astronaut has no shadow underneath the light fixtures or anywhere else that is being blocked from the overhead sunlight. I think this would make a big difference in the blending of the astronaut with the environment.

drink vodka, lots of it, or do some tut's, don't get me wrong, both chops were great, i just love promting my tut's, not mine, i stole them

http://www.bluetorials.com/free%20stuff/ps_tuts.html

It also would help (The Awakening: Mars Edition) to add some kind of narrative( kindof what armo. said) that would give it more appeal...for example maby a reflection of a "curious inhabitant" in the helmet glass or "menacing inhabitant" ...... .
Boosting the saturation and contrast would do some good also.

excellent work Scion. Exactly what I was talking about earlier. Good comments in this thread here, bneises. You're lucky to get a thread this constructive.

I love threads like this! These threads benefit everyone as long as they stay constructive.

First thing I noticed in your H2H chop is the sharp delineation of the soil and the hand. It gives it a cut/paste look.

It also looks like your erased areas to give a look like sand/soil build-up on the suit. Good idea but doesn't look "right". Check out the light module by the hand and you'll see what I mean. Also the entire left side of to suit looks like it's been made transparent because of the technique. Again this makes it look like a quickie chop.

Biggest thing is the theme. It just does not seemed finished as there's nothing to go with the story in the helmet's mask reflection. If you look at all the winning H2H entries that weren't transformations you'll see they told a story with the reflected image.

I think that's where I went wrong with my H2H entry. I wanted to have the facial expression visible and still show the ship leaving without him. This proved too much. Almost everyone who commented to me wondered what was in the mask. My wife thought it was lemons.

I agree with everyone so far, for the mona lisa except for one thing... I would adjust you colour saturation, and colour correct the cat image to suit the mona lisa one, and if needed still, adjust the layer opacity. Maybe duplicate the cat layer and play with an artistic filter and then fool around with opacity!

Good Luck with these!

just a quick edit: