DON'T LOOK AT ME!!!

I thought I was bad at explaining things....

Latest efforts. I think all told I've spent about 5 hours on this thing. Most of that's been re-learning things I'd forgotten and experimenting with layers, layer modes, layer effects, etc.

Biggest changes are obviously that I cropped it differently. As much as I loved the building there was too much empty space at the top and sides of the composition (designer types are welcome to give advice here). Also I was working on the lightning surrounding the orb. Ended up basically blotting out the orb. Once upon a time I saw a tut on how to create a glass sphere so I think I may try to incorporate that into the piece.



I'd like some advice on blurring for perspective now (hi Marx). Will I need to flatten the image first?

Here's the current .psd for anyone that wants it.

The lightning is cool, the crop" not so cool. it's all a learning experiance"

Do you think it looked better before? Something seemed to be missing and the empty space bugged me. Maybe I should change the background to a night scene with a full moon in the sky (perhaps behind some clouds)?

I'm bummed about this thread. I was hoping to see input from the site's heavy-hitters too (i.e. ReyRey, Claf, anfa, etc.). I think a lot of people could have really benefited from the thread. But at least I'm getting some feedback. Something is better than nothing.

I'm working on this one, any suggestion? be nice please, thanks ~

Well I continue to play with it. The previous version was just too purple for my tastes and the foreground seemed to blend into the background too much. So I went away from dawn/twilight and more toward evening. Pointers on doing night scenes would be appreciated.

My wife gave me a good idea. She suggested using the circles from the original ram to create a texture for the woman's dress.



I don't have access to the server at work so I'll have to update the .psd tomorrow morning (as long as I don't take the day off from work).

I like it mikey! About the only thing I see so far is that the crown of thorns blends into the head/hair a little too much. Maybe a saturation adjustment on the crown?

It's looking better and better tofu" to add stars, find a picture with stars that you like then make a copy, put the layer over your picture then in layer blend mode, use the (screen) mode and the stars will show through" then just erase the parts you dont want. ~

thanks tofu, I'll work on that" ~

Technical question. Would stars show with a full/near-full moon? It's been cloudy here for a long time so I can't go out and look.

I also thought about just making my own star field and then blending as you outlined. I may add wispy clouds in the sky. There's a definite depth problem.

Embiggened version of the chop

So far so good ,Tofu. It looks much better without all the purple overlay.
I think some of the depth problem would be corrected if you darkened/shadowed the front of the cathedral(?). It's a bit to bright unless of course there is going to be a light source in front of it. I would remove the highlight on the (viewer's) left horn. It confuses the lighting a bit. IMHO

Here's a great star field tutorial : http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html
in case yur gonna go for the stars idea. You'd definitely see some up there.

This is a good thread idea. I like seeing the evolution of a chop.

Thanks for the tip Couch! I darkened the background with a better gradient overlay effect and other tweaks. I think it looks better.

I'm afraid my photobucket account will quickly hit the bandwidth limit so I'm posting the link to the chop on my new DA account. This also works better as I can put the full-size version of the picture there. It's easier to see the details (and flaws) in the full version.

Now I want to work out how to turn the original source's "curls" into a dress.

Oh yeah. The current .psd. The thing is ~34MB. Should I zip them instead? I'm sure compressing would cut the size in half for easier downloading.

Better crop.
I like the space up top, personally...opens it up a bit.
And your wife had a good idea!

You may want to lighten up the inside of the hands just a hair...I mean, she is conjuring up a lighted orb.

Thanks for the pointers DP! I liked the crop once I added the moon in. I think it balanced it a bit more. I also moved the moon to be behind the building a tad, darkened the building, added some lighting cast from the orb onto the horns, and other minor tweaks.

The version quoted has since been updated. Check out the big version on DA for the latest (and yes I see the masking artifact in it).