Thank you thank you. I try really really really hard. I pour my soul into these things.

I can tell

Thanks Majkman.

Sorry I am late but thanks lolu!!

A good win for you Z!!!

Thanks CM. Simple but effective.

That is a very difficult question. This Chop had some difficulties but also had some good things going for it. The main problem was the car external source was underexposed, and had lot of lost detail. Due to loss of detail, I probably could not "lighten" the car parts to match the source pipes, so I decided to darken the "source" pipes to match the car parts. You can see this in the engine block, the heat-fin thingy, and the front end part in steps 7, 8, and 9. Color Match worked good as a start (which took a bit of finagling) and then some lighting/color adjustments to dial it in.

Cutting things out properly is vital too. I generally use a 1px feather when cutting things out but sometimes that is greater or even much much much greater. The enemy is a "hard edged cut out" that looks like a cut out. If the 1px feather doesn't look good you can always re-mask and re-feather it as you already have your "base-line" cut out. Also cleaning the edges from **ANY** fringing, to me, is key. Even something minor like these "yuckies" on this spring should be taken out IMO https://image.ibb.co/dn0nr8/springs.gif. This is rather easy to do. Clip a layer on top of the springs. Sometimes I use Multiply, Hard Light, Overlay, but this time I kept it at a Normal Layer. Then just clone in some matching color from the springs to cover the yuckies and it will lessen that "cut out look".

Also when blending something in, remember that you do not always have to use a 100% brush while masking. A lot of the time it's best to use a lower opacity soft brush (22%-44% in my opinion but u can go higher or lower if needed) and just keep brushing from the outside to the inside which will create sort of a feathered mask. It takes time, but your blend can come out WAY better. Don't forget you can change the hardness of your brush so sometimes a harder brush will do better, but this is not usual.

Get used to your Pen Tool when cutting something out and make sure you can set your mouse/tablet to a lower DPI to make it move slower when using a Lasso or even while painting/masking. Use Smart Objects when you can, and also use Clipping Mask layer adjustments. You shuold almost NEVER work destructively.

Beyond that the brightness and color should matching, which is a whole 'nother ball game. Sometimes you may even have a bright/dark "spot" on something that needs to be taken care of, so that will have to be masked (generally with soft feather)and adjusted accordingly.

Proper shadowing or lightening of areas is also vital. A lot of the times you should use several layers when making a shadow. Make a darker one on top (this one will generally be smaller in size), and get lighter and lighter towards the bottom layers (these I generally make larger and lager). You want to do it this way because if you put the lighter shadow layers on top of the darker one, it may make the dark shadow layer TOO dark. You can change your brush shape with F5, so a lot of the times it's best to use an "oval" brush when doing this.

I'm probably missing a million things, but these are the ones that popped into my head while sitting here. Watch YouTube videos. Besides looking at other's work, it's one of the best ways to learn. Hope this helps.

Thanks SA. It all fit together nicely. I had two final versions and basically after a coin toss, I decided on this one. The other one didn't have that "old fashioned" look but it was definitely awesome too. Sometimes nothing is good enough, but this time I had two to choose from. Not a usual situation.

You could have put both in the contest if they look different enough. You are allowed more than one in a contest.

Mahalo seestah. My score surprised me. Didn't expect that high.

It all came together pretty easily actually. Once I found that source car, it was destiny.

TY BTW.

Oh damn. That sucks. I doubt he will let me, but I did send him a message on his Flikr account.

Very often photographers will give permission for use of their images in these situations where they are credited and there is no monetary gain for the work. We will keep your entry up as long as possible while awaiting the author's reply.

No we're not slipping. We have many ways to check sources even when links aren't provided by authors. I checked the octopus image myself and found it was from wikipedia, the rust was obviously just a texture many of which are readily available. I didn't bother to mention you not posting them since the pressing issue was the copyright of the light bulb, posting the missing links (which I already knew were acceptable) could have been done right up till contest end in a comment.

Thanks. I hope you know my above comment was in jest. Love you guys/gals.

Thx. Always a challenge to get the right coloring. In my interpretation, that is a sand dune at the beach.

Mahalo nui MM.

what do you mean by "sharp edges"? specifically where?

Thanks man. I will try.

Sounds interesting. Let me see if I am understanding you. Select the man. Select > Modify > Contract by "X" Pixels. Select > Inverse. Now I will have the outer edge of the man selected. Then apply a 1 Pixel Gaussian Blur? If this is correct, how many pixels should be selected around the edge? Can this be done faster by Select > Modify > Border?

Thanks SA. Good suggestions.

Thank brother or sister still. I made two versions and here is the other. I made a disclaimer in a post below about the bad guy that is in this image. It was taken care of in the final version.

Mahalo Rob Van Dam. that's my nickname for you because that's who I think of every time I see your name.

Thank you thank you. It was hard to choose between the two versions. (see my post a few posts below for the other version)

Ahh.. MM. Thanks seestah. Seems like i haven't seen you in a while. Or we just haven't crossed paths.

There's my girl. Always there with a smiling face.

Haha. I struggle with almost every Photoshop I do here.

Me too. This dummy face is fascinating.

TY my friend.

I think you're right as per usual CMYK. TY.

It's a tricky light source IMO. In the source image, the shadows on the bushes are going to our right. On the small wood posts on the right side of the source, the shadows go to our left. On the windmill... I dunno. Gonna do what I can. TY for the help CMYK.

Mahalo still26

Thanks SA.

mahalo still26

TY z