Girl smoking - feedback and suggestions :-)

I was working since some time on a bigger scene where I wanted a girl to smoke a cigarette on the street. As this turned not in the direction I thought (will get back to that at some time) I used the pose for a portrait. While I am pretty happy with the pose, light and composition I am struggling with the background. In colour the black background is ok, as the girl literally blooms. But in black and white the dark background doesn't fit. Any suggestions .. I am looking for something not to noisy which still makes the smoke visible.

Maybe you have some other suggestions for the smoke as well? I not wanted to buy some resources just for that, so maybe you can point me to some better freebies or tutorials for that? :-)

Thanks a lot!

Chris

 

Charlene smoking simple 1_export.jpg
1500 x 1500 - 292K

Comments

  • Ron's Brushes Smoke would be good for the smoke.

    https://www.daz3d.com/rons-detail-smoke

     

  • Here the black and white variation of the first draft .. 
    When I had the scene in mind I was thinking about a bw in the first place. As it turns out now the colour variation looks actually better to me.

    Charlene smoking simple 1_export-2.jpg
    1500 x 1500 - 246K
  • This is called Detail Smoke from one of his products.

     

    Return Smoker.png
    1500 x 1500 - 1M
  • Griffin AvidGriffin Avid Posts: 3,755
    edited November 2018

    This is called Detail Smoke from one of his products.

     

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • punkypunky Posts: 25
    edited November 2018

    That’s fun: I recently did a similar image and kind of had the same issues :)

    I wanted the Image to be black and white, but in the end liked the colored version more. For the smoke, I used  three smoke props of https://www.daz3d.com/fast-fog-iray

    Regarding the background, I would recommend something more interesting than a plain color. Maybe a nice wall/concrete texture, or similar to my image, a full environment set blurred due to the depth of field. But you probably need to stick to darker tones, in order to make the smoke stand out against it.

     

    Post edited by punky on
  • This is called Detail Smoke from one of his products.

     

     

    Thanks for the inspiration. Would you do this purely as post-processing? I found some free brushes and was thinking to have the smoke on a simple plane primitive in the model itself if it does make a difference .. maybe not.

  • Shouldn't make a difference, it's all how you want to work.

    The only pro for Post over in-Studio is you can always try a million different brushes and keep playing around till you find one or a combination you like.

    And keep a bunch of attemps and judge one versus another.

    Like a photographer would///

    Besides the Iray preview- experimenting with different looks is a tough thing.

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,926

    The pose is great but she looks like a manniquin. I'd try a different skin texture set, unless a toon style is what you are after.

  • Scale down the cigarette it looks to big in your render. Maybe scale it down about 95-90%.

    punky got the cigaret scaling right. Also there should be some glowing of the ash something you could do in postwork or I've heared of immersive shader in Iray a surface that emits light. The glowing end of your your cigarette model looks very artificial.

  • Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Somehow I screwed up the pose and try to rebuild it (somehow I failed to get the look I liked).

  • https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/693316

    Here we are .. a few renders and tries later I am pretty close to the point I started from. ;-)

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