I’ve finally got around to watching the Brooke Shaden Masterclass that I bought at Xmas when it was on special. There is a LOT of information in there – much of it covered in her other classes but gone into with a different perspective and level of depth in this one.
So far I am enjoying it and it has inspired me to have a go at compositing an image. She has one done on a clock and I have a similar clock face in my mixed media art supplies…..
Suitably decorated, the clock is shot and my hand is also shot and I try and composite.
ALL THE MISTAKES ARE MADE!!!
– I thought if I shot it on a black background it would blend relatively seamlessly – NO NO NO NO it didnt. The black was not dark enough and even with tweaking contrast etc in PS, it affected the other non black elements in the shot and didnt blend properly as a result.
Eventually after beating at PS with a stick and many layers blended and tweaked together I kinda made it work
– Used chia seeds instead of sand which was the original ide – but I still ended up having to mask around all the edges and gaps to make it look fully blended.
– I had originally gone with the idea of blood pouring from my wrist but thought that would be a little too obvious – it would have been a LOT easier to mask around tho 😦
– In blending all the layers on the hand, I blew out the highlights and lost detail
– There arent the right shadows on the hand and under the seeds so they look a bit pasted on
– The clock is slightly out of focus cos it warped while it was cooling down from being on the fire to dry the paint
-I still completely suck at adjusting colour tones on layers so that they are equally vibrant and saturated and look the same – this is the thing I struggle with the most
All that being said I still like this – I conceptualised the shoot, made the shoot happen, had a go at compositing the images, and either way learned a LOT.
Not sure how I’m going to solve many of these problems, but I know that having another go is the best way to try 🙂
Regardless of the fact that this full of issues and mistakes, does the concept work?
When you see this image what does it make you think of? Feel?
Have any tips on how to solve my problems?
EDIT – shortly afterwards I realised that some of the issues could be reduced a bit if I applied a Topaz Impression paint filter over it…
Learning to See Light 
Colours are nice but I think I would have tried to only use your hand – not your whole arm in the composite IMHO
just a disembodied hand?
D’you know, I think it could work better with less of your arm in shot, move your hand further to the left
Thats the second comment ive had saying less arm
All quite ‘armless fun…..
Well, kudos for the effort….I’m too lazy to do this sort of thing
I believe that if you wanted to use less arm, then you’d have to minimize the size of the clock. You achieved what you were trying to convey, that is, the sands of time running out.