First Composite = Fail?

Apart from the underexposed (it's dusk so that's the way I wanted it), what is wrong with this image? It's my first composite of two bracketed images and I want to like it but it feels strange. I guess I haven't got the hang of light and making it look real yet. It is my first attempt after all and I'm no expert with Photoshop either. Without making excuses though, what is wrong with this image and how could I have improved it? Thanks

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/two40/530351982​2/

a fill flash on the car would have been great...

Thanks. I had a flash on me and I did use it. I wasn't too happy with it. The light was too harsh and my remote trigger was playing up so I threw in the towel.

I guess the image isn't just about the car but more the whole scene 'with' a car that happens to be in it. hehe

Hope you don't mind, here's a little pp fun. Great shot!

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i agree that a fill flash on the car would've helped a lot. maybe also a few layer masks to brighten the ground scenery and leave the sky as is so everything would be properly exposed. it's a nice shot altogether though!

One of the easiest ways to fix colors is to open up the curves menu, find the darkest spot and use the eyedropper to highlight it, I used the black off one tire, then find the lightest spot and use eyedropper on that, bottom of the sunset, then do the same for neutral gray, I used the road. Another thing that you can do is to add just a hint of high pass sharpening. You wanted to keep the mood of dusk so I didn't brighten it a whole lot but here is what I did in about a minute or so with your image. Take a look at the wheels, they really stand out now. I might have oversharpened it just a hair or two but it gives you the idea.

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altspace wrote in post #11534577
Hope you don't mind, here's a little pp fun. Great shot!

I don't mind at all. Thanks

p27rpy wrote in post #11534666
i agree that a fill flash on the car would've helped a lot. maybe also a few layer masks to brighten the ground scenery and leave the sky as is so everything would be properly exposed. it's a nice shot altogether though!

I did play around with properly exposing the ground and although it makes sense to, it just looks wrong. It's starts to border on a HDR. Your eye just picks up that there's something wrong with the scene. Maybe a touch more exposure would help though. Thanks for your input.

Rod M wrote in post #11534732
One of the easiest ways to fix colors is to open up the curves menu, find the darkest spot and use the eyedropper to highlight it, I used the black off one tire, then find the lightest spot and use eyedropper on that, bottom of the sunset, then do the same for neutral gray, I used the road. Another thing that you can do is to add just a hint of high pass sharpening. You wanted to keep the mood of dusk so I didn't brighten it a whole lot but here is what I did in about a minute or so with your image. Take a look at the wheels, they really stand out now. I might have oversharpened it just a hair or two but it gives you the idea.

I've never tried this and it worked fairly well. It struggled with the white but I've learned something new. Thanks.

After looking at it again, I realized that the biggest problem was in the crop. So I cropped it down to remove all the blue in the sky that wasn't really adding anything, here it is again.

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Hmm, I see. Removing the darker blues allows for a more even exposure throughout. Thanks

I see some haloing around the car, that would be the first thing I'd work to correct.

Aside from the haloing, your car has a "white light" on it when it needs to be more orange. Your light source is very warm - it is the sunset - so the highlights and reflections on the car should mirror this fact. Also, the light source indicates that the shadow underneath the mx-5 should have a tendency to come towards the viewer, and most likely be less harsh than how you have it. Currently it sits below the car like it is 12 in the afternoon.

To fix this, the light on the top half of the car (towards the front end) should have a photo filter applied to warm up those regions. The passenger side of the car has a clean white reflection coming from who-knows-where. If you could soften the light on that side of the car while bringing down the intensity you'd be set.

If your composition didn't utilize warm directional lighting, I think this could have been successful. Try it again and see what happens.

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Leafy Photography wrote in post #11537695
I see some haloing around the car, that would be the first thing I'd work to correct.

Noted. It is fairly obvious now that you mention it.

cccc wrote in post #11540192
Aside from the haloing, your car has a "white light" on it when it needs to be more orange. Your light source is very warm - it is the sunset - so the highlights and reflections on the car should mirror this fact. Also, the light source indicates that the shadow underneath the mx-5 should have a tendency to come towards the viewer, and most likely be less harsh than how you have it. Currently it sits below the car like it is 12 in the afternoon.

To fix this, the light on the top half of the car (towards the front end) should have a photo filter applied to warm up those regions. The passenger side of the car has a clean white reflection coming from who-knows-where. If you could soften the light on that side of the car while bringing down the intensity you'd be set.

If your composition didn't utilize warm directional lighting, I think this could have been successful. Try it again and see what happens.

Muchas gracias. Everything you pointed out makes sense and is exactly what I was looking for. I'll have another go soon.

Good one! It's more of a "Car + landscape" shot, so I don't mind that the car is a little dark. As for, "I see some haloing around the car,", that's easily fixed with a more accurate selection: Selecting areas in PS.