Photoshopping Advice - Not so cardboard-cutouty

[AL...Ease]

I've been using photoshop (well, Paint Shop Pro) for quite a while, mainly to make funny photos, but I was inspired to edit a photo of my mate's car and there's something not quite right about it:



I've rotated the background to try and make it fit, played around with hue/saturation and shadows, but there's something I can't quite put my finger on that's making it look too unreal. Can anybody help me?

[holloway_dave]

The thing that is making the car jump out is that the lighting on it is totally different. The background is an overcast day, but the car looks like it's been photographed in direct sunlight.

I had a play with adding a blue filter, some noise and lowering the contrast - just on the car.

eg



still needs to have the bright highlights toned down a bit, but you can see it's headed in the right direction...

[AL...Ease]

That's a bit better, I see what you mean about the lights. I'll have another play.

[Simpo Two]

To me the exhaust smoke doesn't seem right; it would look like that when stationary.

[Pixel Pusher]

Depending on how you have cut the car out, you could try to feather the mask just a bit to give a slightly softer edge.

The shadow is a little too sharp around the edges as well. Try to do the shadow in 2 stages. Darker around the grounding points of the tyres and a bit lighter and softer under the rest of the car.

Also agree with the other comments re lighting & exhaust smoke.

Cheers, PP.

[AL...Ease]

Well, the car was practically stationary when the photo was taken, I added the wheel blur, but couldn't think of a way to get rid of the smoke without degrading the photo, so I added a little bit more to blend it in...

[Simpo Two]

AL...Ease said:

Well, the car was practically stationary when the photo was taken, I added the wheel blur, but couldn't think of a way to get rid of the smoke without degrading the photo, so I added a little bit more to blend it in...

At time of shooting - stop the car and turn the engine off... but too late now.