Work stuff, and piccy

[ria_oaks]

Haven't been posting much recently... not since Strikethrough, actually. Laazy. -_- I realized that I haven't even posted yet to tell you guys the news - I got the job at the Credit Union. :) Only part-time, though, so I'm keeping my job at Doc's. I've had three shifts so far, including the grand opening today. It's going pretty well so far, though I haven't really had any training yet. She's going to train me next week and the week after... it's a nice environment, though - office is brand new, and the people are friendly. I'm excited to finally have a real job. :) Met our MP Blair Wilson today at the opening, too. Didn't realize who he was at first because I voted in the North Van riding last election and am not too familiar with the West Van riding. ^^ Anyway, I think it will go well and I'm excited to get training...

Anyway, forget real life. XD I've been in a big Pirates mood recently, specifically a Sparrington mood. I never used to ship them, so now I have a huge wealth of fanfiction to read... I've also been inspired to do a bunch of drawings of them, most of which I've already posted. The other day, however, I was browsing elessil's excellent fanart and came across a tutorial she did about graphic manips. I've never tried manipping before, but I was intrigued and decided to give it a go. She provided a few links to boykissing pictures which were very useful, and I chose one that I thought would work well. Finding the right pictures of Jack and James to go with it was a pain in the ass, but I eventually found some that would work... Though I did fiddle with James's mouth a bit to make him look somewhat happier.

Well, all things considered I'm pleased with it. Took a cue from elessil and combined manipping with brushwork/drawing, mainly abusing the smudge function in Photoshop... Not too happy with Jack's hair and I'm a bit iffy on James's arm. But like it otherwise.. I enjoyed doing it, at least once I found pictures that would work, and I might practice some more later.

Please let me know what you think. :) I'd appreciate any feedback, and definitely would like some constructive criticism and advice anyone has to give. I want to get an idea of what I can do to improve it next time...

EDIT: Okay, I think I just realized one of the main problems with this pic... Jack's head is too damned big. Woops. -_-

EDIT 2: I fiddled with it a bit more... can't do anything about Jack's head being too big without redoing his head, but fiddled with him to try to make him blend into the picture more... I think it's a bit better.





EDIT 3: Okay, fiddled with it again... stil not wholly happy with it. Jack needs more lighting... meh, whatever, I don't think I'll do anymore... want to try another one later. XD





EDIT 4: Okay, I lied, I did another one based on some of the comments I received (thanks guys!). Added a bit more shadow into both guys' faces, think it helped a bit.

Comments

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

It's good for a first try, really... I'd make the blacks blacker (through Image/Adjustments/Selective Color) on both of the guys' heads, because the bodyshots have actual black on them and the grayness of the headshots stands out. Otherwise it's good. And yeah, getting Jack's head to fit is pretty difficult 'cause the beard and hair are extra.

I've got a fairly extensive photomanipping tutorial here. (http://snowgrouse.livejournal.com/1017367.html#cutid1) Mostly a list of good rules of thumb.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm, thanks for the feedback. I fiddled with it a bit more to add some shadows to their faces and posted the result; think it looks a bit better. Also checked out your tutorial, which had some useful advice and such. Will save it for later reference... :)

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

It looks nice! I can't do shadows at all, so I only suggested the cheap and easy way of doing it, but you even painted the buggers in! I think I'm going to be looking forward to *your* tutorials soon...

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks. *blush* I fiddled with the brightness/contrast, too, but I find that if I overuse that function the picture starts to look a bit off. And I don't know much about other functions like overlays or whatever. ^^;

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I wouldn't use brightness/contrast, just Selective Color to make the blacks blacker. And duplicating a layer is easy, you can set its mode from the layers box itself. Although I understand it takes a while to get to grips with that stuff. Hell, I've been doing manips for about six years now and I still don't know even half of Photoshop's functions, even professionals don't... the lovely thing about PS is that there are always at least three different ways of achieving the same result:).

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Ahh, okay. Thanks for the advice. :) I'm going to keep fiddling with PS; I think I need a book or something... ^^ It's fun to fool around with it, anyway.