1st OOB...feed my ego

[sfrank]

C&C please....please remember this one is my 1st one.

Any and All comments will be appreciated.

Thanks
Stephen

[kenmyers70]

Cute idea. I think it would be better to have more of the photo in the scene. I would get rid of the shadow box frame effect (its too much of an optical illusion to me). The shadow of the kid is great idea but would be more believable if it were softened some. You probably would also want the shadow of the ball. These are just my thoughts, feel free to disagree.

[sfrank]

Originally Posted by kenmyers70

Cute idea. I think it would be better to have more of the photo in the scene. I would get rid of the shadow box frame effect (its too much of an optical illusion to me). The shadow of the kid is great idea but would be more believable if it were softened some. You probably would also want the shadow of the ball. These are just my thoughts, feel free to disagree.

thanks Ken...like I said it is my first OOB so all suggestions and critiques are appreciated

[Rick]

I don't really like the idea. It looks like your starting with a pretty nice action photo. But then your taking it out of context and putting in nothing but a green box. The green box is totally taking over the photograph. The shadow is doesn't look real. You can Google "shadows in photoshop" (if your using PS) and find a many examples/how-to's that will make it look realistic.

Rick

[tjones0214]

I don't mind the idea. I'm assuming you were going for something creative, like a poster or trading card. Anyway, it's your idea. In terms of C&C, I would take a more basic approach and simply look at where you want your eye to fall on the picture--emphasize that area with either more contrast, light, whatever--you can even go with the white frame thing if that's what your after. Once you get that down, the trick to a believable composite is to make sure your light and shadows are as true as possible. I'm going to assume your using Photoshop here--yes, soften the shadow falling off the player with big feather or you can blur the mask if you used that method. You may also want to look at changing the perspective of the "center" image by rotating it, warping it, etc. Maybe even lay it out more "flat". The focus seems to be action (hitting the ball), but you don't really feel that 100% yet. Changing perspective and then maybe moving the image less off center (rule of thirds; create empty space) will help imply more motion. Add a shadow to the background where the flight of the ball travels (the ball itself already has a nice shadow), as suggested above, and maybe some motion blur--could even clone it and fade the opacity?? From there, I would try and add some additional shadows to the "box". You did great on one side, but if you follow the light, you should have shadows of different degrees on all four "edges"--try a gradient fill and then lower the opacity.

I hope this was not over the top. I think you have the start of a great picture. Don't give up.

[tjones0214]

Sorry...also, what is an OOB?

[Serrator]

Stephen,

Technically your OOB work looks great! Compositionally as mentioned above is a little bit confusing. You have two competing perspectives, one with the white frame and the other with the green boxed perspective.

The shading could also use a little blurring to help with it's realism perhaps.

Well done though for a premiere OOB!!

[Serrator]

Originally Posted by tjones0214

Sorry...also, what is an OOB?

OOB or "out of bounds" is a technique for creating a 3d illusion from images. A lot of the time this is achieved by creating a white frame representing a polariod or other film print border and having part of the image protrude outside of this frame area.

Here are a few of my examples of OOB:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/serrato...7594091393842/