Compositing help

I have some composites I'm working on and have the 2 images together but cannot figure out how to get it looking more realistic. I've uploaded the PSD file for anyone who would like a shot at it - or to offer pointers. What I did -

1. Shot the car on gray seamless.
   
2. Shot the background with no direct sun hitting it - it was late afternoon and the sun was way behind the wall.
   
3. Set both to the same white balance - flash, 5500.
   
4. Created a new layer with the background on top, changed blending mode to hard light and then masked out the car area.
   
5. Created a photo adjustment layer and used blue to tone down how red/orange everything was.
   
6. And that's pretty much it.

I would clone out the reflections in the road as distractions that pull my eye away from the car.
But the biggest problem I see is that the body is flat, without any defining highlights. You did look at the links in my sig, right?

I had a play around with it, and there's a bit of masking that needs to be fixed underneath the car and near the front wheel. I also painted a bit of black to get rid of the light coming in from the far side of the car.

But you've got a pretty good start.

Thanks for the feedback. Frank - I did read over your page. I'd love to know how to create those huge reflections in the car without the huge sheets/scrims. These cars were driving in one after another and it was just me.No one to hold huge reflectors or hang things from the ceiling of the warehouse with lights above it.

I will definitely work on it when shooting outside.

James

I will take a shot at working this composite, but a couple things to think about:

1) How did you establish the scale of the vehicle relative to the background? The vehicle looks a little bit too big. This, in part, makes the entire scene look almost like a diorama or miniature scene.

2) The way you set up your mask is a little bit odd. You punched out the background to let the car layer show through from underneath. Interesting, but what happens when you want to make changes to the car layer that involve geometry (like scaling or distorting the car to adjust the perspective and scale)? I quickly did a test to preserve your masking concept - I copied the mask from the "Background" that punches the car area out (car-black, everything else white) to the car layer. I inverted that mask on the car layer, so that the car is visible and the gray cloth is masked. I scaled and distorted the car, making those same changes to the mask (the chain link icon is active). I then copied the transformed mask back to the background layer and inverted it to restore the original punch out, but with the geometric transformations applied.

It would be a lot easier if the mask were applied to the car layer and the car layer was above the background layer. Is there any specific reason you set it up the way you did?

3) The background plate is shot in diffuse light and the vehicle is shot in direct light. The contrast between the background and the car is not consistent, nor is the shading. Reduce the contrast and saturation on the car to get it more in line with the background and then grade the comp.

4) The reflection in the road surface is too glossy, as the road itself does not appear to be wet, but the reflection of the car implies it is wet. If you want to retain the wet look of the reflection, you will probably want to make the underlying roadway look wet - increase the contrast and saturation and pull the black of the roadway down, maybe. I would also comp in the reflections and shadows that the car applies to the ground on separate layers so you can control their interaction with the background separately (opacity, blend mode, etc.). This is similar to the way a 3D CG rendering of a scene like this is done so that the artist has access to all of the render channels to make the composite.


I'll mock up something and post it here to see if it gets any closer to what you are trying to achieve.

kirk

Kirk -

Thanks a million! I agree with everything you said. I tried to use the same focal length when shooting the car and when shooting the background as well as the distance from each. I obviously didn't get it close enough, but can scale the car as you suggested. Feel free to scale the overall size of the image down to make it more manageable. Look forward to seeing it.

James

So here's a try. I basically did all of the above suggestions. Once the scale and transforms were roughed in, I tried to get the shadows set. There probably could be more careful work in that regard, but take a look at car photos with diffuse light to get an idea of what these shadows look like.

Then I tried to get the lighting on the car to take on a little more of the surroundings. I used some lighting effects and added a very slight reflection of the buildings behind the camera - the ones you can't see! I just copied and pasted the background onto a new layer and sculpted the brick wall surface so that it would follow the contours of the body - when you blend it in, there are some speculars and reflections in the body that integrate it into the background plate a little bit more.

Then I tried to match the contrast between the car and the background - I added some fog to the car to get it to flatten out and match the background.'

Then, it was like starting with a flat image ready for color and contrast. I went over the top, sure I admit it - it is definitely a stylized look versus a pure composite. But I exaggerated everything so it hopefully will be easier for you to see what I am talking about.

Fun!

kirk

over the top

James33 wrote in post #17098205
I'd love to know how to create those huge reflections in the car without the huge sheets/scrims.
I will definitely work on it when shooting outside.

Quickster let God create them here! just one. GTR ; )

PhotosGuy wrote in post #17099725
Quickster let God create them here! just one. GTR ; )

You are correct - that is fantastic!

Here is how I would retouch this photo. I felt the ground was a little bright in the original shot. I also preferred the car to have more shadows under it. I felt this help match the background a little better. Lastly I did some reflection retouching on the car and added a little dodge and burn. Hope this helps.

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Thanks Nathan - I am definitely making the pavement much darker and working on the reflections, dropping the brightness and contrast on the cars to match the BG better, etc.

Appreciate the ideas and inspiration everyone!
James

One thing is getting the proper scale. The car is too big. Look at the door at the top. Make a layer that size and bring it down next to the car. The average door is little under 7 feet (im 6-5 so I quite aware of door heights). If you dont want to use that. Those are regular bricks on the wall. Regular bricks are about 8.75 inches long. I count the car being almost 35 bricks long. That comes out to about a car that 25 feet long ((8.75 * 35) / 12) = 25.49 .... even if you take into account that the car is a few feet away from the wall, making it bigger perspective wise, its still be a little sports car thats 20 feet long...

Its probably not the best background street, because it looks like the car has to block the traffic lane to fit and not be on the side walk. Where's the curb?

Reduce car size
D&B on different layers
Gradient Map
Make it dusk instead of Daylight
Car was too saturation and too sharp
Added lights.

IMAGE LINK: http://s288.photobucke​t.com …dia/compositeFI​X.jpg.html

That's excellent! I'll see what I can do to duplicate your efforts. Thank you for the tips and help!

James