Newcomer in search of tips!

[Miriam]

Dear fellow-photoshoppers,

Since a few months I have started to work with photoshop and it has turned into one of my favorite hobbies. I have created this image (see attached file) for my parents, as a tribute to all the cats we have had and have loved. However, as I am very unexperienced, I am having a lot of trouble making it a correct whole. I have created this image out of multiple cat-pictures, and used multiple tips and tricks to make each head look like it was painted on the painting. It is, however, quite difficult to create a painting out of it because of all the different lighting etcetera. I am neither skilled nor talented in designing and photoshop, so I decided (after trying a lot of different stuff, which didn't work), to reach out to this community. Do you have any tips for me for how to make the cat heads more "one-with-the-painting" and more like each other? If you do, I would be forever gratefull!

Kind regards, miriam

 

[Rich54]

You chose a very difficult painter—Rembrandt—to try to simulate. He uses very dramatic lighting with lots of shadows and highlights, so I think two things will help create your illusion: you first need to determine where the light is coming from, and then you need to create dramatic shadows on the cats' faces that match the light and Rembrandt's style.

In the original painting, I added the red arrow to show where I believe the primary light is coming from. It looks to me like it comes from the top-left, and also from the front.



Below is my version (done very quickly) of your cat image. I'm also attaching the Photoshop file.

• I turned-off all of your layers in the layer group called Beschadigingen.
• The first thing I see is that the cat Toet is dark on the left and light on the right, which is exactly opposite of what he (she) should be. So I took his layer and reversed it (Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal).
• On new layers above the cats, I created two Curves adjustments: one that dramatically lightens the image and one that dramatically darkens. Then I filled the layer mask with black for both.
• Select a soft brush and set the flow to 20%. Using this brush, paint with white in the layer mask of both Curves layers to first brighten the top-left side of the cats and then darken the bottom-right.
• Consistent lighting will go a long way to making the image more convincing. And then try as best as you can to simulate Rembrandt's use of extreme darks and lights (called Chiaroscuro).
• Lastly, some of the cats, such as Hobbes and Willem, could probably use some shadow between their necks and the white collars. Maybe something like this:

 

[Argos]

Agree with rich54, I couldn't resist trying to fix the light and add some shadowing, in case it helps!

 

[syrupfizzy]

Nice editing, it could be better if the head of the lying man is a mouse.

 

[Miriam]

Hi guys! Thanks very much! It looks so much better allready.. So sorry for the extremely late reply, had some things going on.. but ok now. Im gonna work on it some more with your tips!