deanagar

I tried greenscreen and I found that for still photography it was much easier to hand cut from a mid grey background (I use Digital Film Tools ezMask for hair). I tried green many times until I just gave up.

Pulling a mask that would be ok for motion in video is a different ball game from a hi res still that can be looked at in much closer detail, especially on a big print.

Greenscreen, unless done perfectly, tends to give a green halo and colour spill on to the subject. On your example there is green spill everywhere which makes the digitally placed backdrop all the more obvious. Why would a brown backdrop spill green on to the hair and body? It's a giveaway that it's a digitally inserted background.

Removing the green spill in PS would take so much longer to do than just cutting the person out, which on a shot like this, would take no more than 10 mins to do a perfect clipping path and hair mask.

A mid grey backdrop ensures no colour spill and also makes the cut easier. If you have a black or white backdrop then it's tough to decide sometimes where a black edge or white edge on the subject actually meets the background. On grey it's almost always clear where the distinction is, making the cut easier and therefore more accurate.

All these were shot on grey and have digitally added backgrounds.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=9228168

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6431694

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6458838

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5730095

All the best

Dean

Very nice shot and nice post production too.

All the best

Dean

Very good shot. I would have tried cropping it from the top a little and maybe placing the windmill to the left or right of frame but that's just me :-)

Dean

Interesting to see you go with bright colours. Model and pose are great, lighting I'm not sure of.

The point you raise about your images been all over the internet is an interesting one. Is anyone making money from them or is it just on blogs etc People appreciating the work?

I've lost count of the number of my images around the web but I've never found anyone selling a low res jpeg therefore I really couldn't care less.

The watermark just blows it. Maybe you should question your desire to 'share' if you actually don't want to share.

Or you take a leaf out of Ben Heys book as he watermarks his work in a tasteful manner that doesn't ruin the whole thing.

My point is, you learn from others who take time to offer critiques and ratings. Why not give a bit back? It's not an ego massage site (or at least it shouldn't be).

BTW I think it's safe to discard any 3-3 rating as bitterness when your shots are at your high level.