Recent Work

[Thom]

Nice work Whaat. I must say Frutiger's PS noise reduction technique really improved your first image.

[Whaat]

Some more recent work. How can I make these better? What can I do to add some artistic punch in PS while still maintaining a photo-realistic style?

[Doug Armand]

Hope you don't mind but I took one of yours and just did a quick bit of PShopping - just some curves, noise,etc the kind of thing I do to 'real' photographs to try and make it look a bit more 'real'

[StompinTom]

Hope you don't mind but I took one of yours and just did a quick bit of PShopping - just some curves, noise,etc the kind of thing I do to 'real' photographs to try and make it look a bit more 'real'

I think that's too over-sharpened (flaring around the tree top at right) and I've never been a fan of adding too much noise to photos, it can look too much like JPG aliasing at times...

The biggest detriments right now are the shingle and stone materials, they're not reading properly. The stone could use some displacement and less contrast in the actual diffuse texture. That should give it depth and align it with the lighting condition you've got going there. The shingles look flat and a bit blurry. I know that it would be a real bitch to do, but having them as instanced/modeled geometry would be much better.

Other than that, it looks pretty good, as much as cookie-cutter suburban houses can

[Whaat]

Doug: Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure I would want to add so much noise to my images but in some cases, the technique could come in handy.

Tom: Yes, materials can always be improved if you have the time. I am curious what you would do with the image to enhance it in PS. Maybe it's too boring of a subject to really do anything creative with. Any ideas?

[haluperido]

I am curious what you would do with the image to enhance it in PS. Maybe it's too boring of a subject to really do anything creative with. Any ideas?

I think the exposure of the scene is a bit dull in comparison to the reality. Shadows show a very bright sunny day, but the image is really dull. You could never take a picture like that with a camera in those conditions if you expose for the shadows.

I took a quick try with GIMP and photoshop to add some glow and correct the exposure, hope you don't mind

[CTZn]

The exposure is to relate with the screen gamma used also, Whaat may be working on a Mac.

[haluperido]

The exposure is to relate with the screen gamma used also, Whaat may be working on a Mac.

Yes it might be - Mac's have lower screen gamma do they? (1.8?)
Keeping correct luminosity histogram shape during postproduction should help.

[StompinTom]

I think Doug had the exposure spot on, the 'glow' effect makes it look like a flashback from a zombie movie, if you know what I mean...

Looks like an overall brightness thing; lots of sunny daylight images look punchy because they're a tad over-exposed (while still retaining detail) so that could be a good path. I think it's great that you've got the shadows on the driveway, it really helps give a sense of context/environment, which otherwise may be missing in these types of shots. Much of the time it's the stuff behind the camera and all around the edges of the scene that can give the image the extra kick.

EDIT: The second image, however, could be tweaked a fair bit.

- The sky is too saturated and obviously Photoshopped (cut and paste?). The rest of the colors in the scene aren't nearly as intense.
- The garage door looks like a 2D drawing made to look like 3D (too flat, even, perfect)
- Needs much more environment to reflect, otherwise the windows look very strange and plastic.
- Some of the vegetation is a bit intense in relation to the grass + trees.
- Stone + shingles again, stone especially.
- Otherwise, they're both nicely composed, no problems with that. In the second image it's mostly the sky that's killing it.

[Whaat]

Thanks so much for your feedback everyone. Greatly appreciated!

I think Doug had the exposure spot on, the 'glow' effect makes it look like a flashback from a zombie movie, if you know what I mean...

Looks like an overall brightness thing; lots of sunny daylight images look punchy because they're a tad over-exposed (while still retaining detail) so that could be a good path.

I have attached my latest post-pro attempt taking your advice into account. (I haven't changed anything in the 3D model or materials though). I think this is a bit better. Thoughts?

EDIT: The second image, however, could be tweaked a fair bit.

- The sky is too saturated and obviously Photoshopped (cut and paste?). The rest of the colors in the scene aren't nearly as intense.
- The garage door looks like a 2D drawing made to look like 3D (too flat, even, perfect)
- Needs much more environment to reflect, otherwise the windows look very strange and plastic.
- Some of the vegetation is a bit intense in relation to the grass + trees.
- Stone + shingles again, stone especially.
- Otherwise, they're both nicely composed, no problems with that. In the second image it's mostly the sky that's killing it.

For this image, I used a different setup than I normally do. In order to give better control of the lighting, I used sun/sky plus environment map, plus emitting sky plane behind the house (all three on separate layers). It was a very effective way to control the lighting and the hardness of the shadows. However, as you say, the sky is too intense. This could easily be changed by using material ID to select the sky plane and using an adjustment layer in PS.

Part of the reason I used this workflow was because I found I was wasting a lot of time replacing the sky in photoshop (problems masking around leaves and small details). From my experience, when I use an alpha render or material ID to replace the sky in photoshop, the resulting mask is far from perfect and usually needs a fair bit of tweaking. Any tips are appreciated.

[Whaat]

Another project in the works. This is just a materials/lighting test. I'm getting somewhere with the shingles material finally.

[Whaat]

A few new images. Any advice? Thanks! (We don't get to do images of trendy modern architecture where I live... )

[tar_gniK]

I like the last one in particular. Maybe add some road markings? The two images prior are looking good, but somehow I think the window reflections are off-putting. I think there needs to be a point of interest behind the windows -- like some curtains or blinds. Unless you intended for skyscraper style windows on a residential property... It is almost like there is a void in there....

[StompinTom]

Great improvements. The last one especially brings back memories of suburbia Night shot looks very nice.

[Camox]

I like the last two. Nice mood. Only the road looks too clean, here is missing a texture.

greetz