Need Suggestions

[Ulrich Yassen]

I need help with what to do with this. It is pretty good as it is but I want the background to look more realistic and I have no clue how to start. Any other ways to improve this picture are also welcome.

http://forums.biorust.com/photopost/..._Version_2.jpg

[tamlin]

For me, the main problem is that the "hole" in the wall doesn't really work - the edges don't look 3-dimensional or "damaged" enough. What I mean is that if this is a hole blown in a wall by a bomb you should be able to see the thickness of the wall at the edges. Also you'd probably get some sort of scorching along the edges. You could easily recreate scorching by using the Burn tool (of course!), but I'm not sure how you'd recreate the wall thickness.

Another thing you might consider is colourizing the view beyond the wall - maybe with some "fiery" colours to suggest the devastation of the Blitz.

Finally, the soldier in the foreground looks kind of flat and "stuck on" at the moment, although I'm not sure of the best way to improve that.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

[Ulrich Yassen]

What do you think about the cross and the beams going across the hole? Should I change them or remove them or do you think they look okay?

Also with the guy, he is actually in the original picture, I just colored him and lightened him a little. I tried to keep him as similar as possible and just add color but I guess it didn't work out so well.
I really have no clue as to how to change that though...

Thanks for all the other advice, it was really great

[agentxi]

hey ulrich, I think the reason why the person doesn't look like its fitting in the scene is because of the strong contrast between your environment and the colored soldier. It kinda looks like you ran a "negative" filter or some such on the background (or just fudged with the curves), this creates highlights where the shadows should be, etc.

A shadow cast by the character will totally ground him to the scene.

As for the question about the cross and beams. I like the cross, but I think it could benefit from having a highlight, or have scorch marks around the base of it or something (something that will help make it stand out a bit more from the background.)

As for the beams I'm not sure they really fit properly. I would suggest mabye shortening them up some, and only have the "tips or ends" showing like as if the beams have been blown away with the rest of the wall, but you can still see the framing. Here's a few samples from a quick google search for reference

Gallica 82 H
http://www.worldwaronecolorphotos.co...vl00299_p3.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...d_building.jpg
http://www.worldwaronecolorphotos.co.../db_82-611.jpg

and maybe take a look at the wall edges for rubble reference as well...

Anyways hope this helps ya out some

agentxi

[voodooburning]

it looks good but as others have said the wall needs to be thickened, and the guy needs darkening as he looks like he's sitting on the picture. also you might want to clone or recreate some of the noise from the outside bit for the inside bit as this would make the 2 feel more like part of the same picture, good work though, keep it up