Photoshop wizards

Ok I know that we have some Photoshop wizards here on this board and I thought I would post this up to see what some of you thought of it.

Basically for my digital photography class we had to take and create a composite image of ourselves placed into some famous photo from the past. Anyway I have never really used Photoshop for much more than correcting photos and cropping. Certainly never tried anything like this before. So any suggestions you guys might have to clean it up a little bit more to make it any better would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and bonus points if you know what the original image was, people in my class could not tell where it was from, which surprised me. I had people guess it was from the Lord of the Rings lol.

Isn't that the iconic National Geographic photo of the Afghan girl with the amazing eyes?

You've done a pretty good job to start with. I'd work on blending in the seam around your chin, playing with shadows there to soften the hard edge.

Keith wrote: Isn't that the iconic National Geographic photo of the girl with the amazing eyes?

Damn that was quick lol. I was shocked that people in a photography class could not get it.

yeah here is the original

A recent NG magazine had a picture of her now, maybe 20 years after the original photo. Oil of Olay must not be a staple in her hut.

The new picture is from 2002, 17 years after the original.

I recognized it instantly, that was such a stunning photo when I first saw it. You did a really good job with it!

Definately work on shading, especially on the right side. Maybe put her eyes on yours for extra wildness.

Yeah I have thought of doing the eye swap however that just seems kinda creepy to me for some reason lol. Shading is something I agree it needs some work on. My photo I put in was done indoors with my remote flash unit but still does not match up quite right with natural light used in the photo.

One of my friends said I looked like I was ready to kill someone.

Take some tilt out of your head

Grain and focus are always tough to match when doing compositing. When in doubt, brush a little more grain and a little more blur into the image you're bringing in, especially around the edges. Helps with the blend, anyway.

Other than that, very nice effort for your first time. Very very nice.

jg

Hmmm good suggestions on the grain and blur around the edges. Even though I have already turned the image in for class I think I will keep playing around with it to see how good I can get it.

So far I have been told it looks like something from Lord of the Rings, that it looks like a samurai (didn't get that one), and that I looked like I was going to kill someone. Are people trying to tell me something?

I also had someone mention how intense my eyes looked in it. I found that funny considering how that is what the original is known for.