So I haven't touched photoshop in years and just got my surface pro out here so I figured I would get back into it to burn time for my deployment. Doing some blur tutorials I came up with this. Any comments tips or points are always welcome as well as what does look good.
Character is Kindred from LOL. One of my favorite.

[URL] http://imgur.com/7UV6cIf [/URL]

This post was edited by Moonshinne on May 6 2016 09:06am

that looks horrible

Don't export as a gif unless it has animation. Use jpeg for boxed in images. Use png for transparent/cut-out images. If you're having trouble getting the image under the 70 KB limit, then use 'save for web' or 'export > save for web', depending on your version of photoshop, then reduce the file by lowering the quality. If you export as a large png, then you can shrink the file size with https://tinypng.com/

The image looks flat, because the smudging is all around the subject, rather than part of the subject, so there's no atmosphere going on. There's too much focus on the object to the right. Adjust composition or smudge that object to be a light color. Don't use a stroke outline for text. The font is too thin as it is, so it looks pixelated. Instead use a subtle outer glow if you want the text to pop, such as 15% black set to multiply. To adjust the focus to the guy make a new layer, set it to screen, then paint a soft edge circle with a lighter color on top of the subject. Adjust the opacity if needed to tone it down. Read/watch more tutorials.

This post was edited by ericswanson_19 on May 6 2016 03:22pm

Jaja thank you for your kind words and suggestions, it was very helpful all the feedback you gave me.

Eric thanks for your input, I took into consideration all you said and produced another piece here
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/YO2frXm.jpg[/IMG]

I feel like this one is much better as I kept the focus on target instead of trying to mix two people into one space.
Again this is just getting back into it doing some really basic stuff so your advice is greatly appreciated.

Still continuing to do more tutorials and just worked on this piece today. I feel a lot better about the last two and have a lot more understanding of lighting and techniques. I ditched the smudging this time and went with more renders as background =)


http://imgur.com/WSJiKuf

Looking a lot better. I recommend downloading more photoshop brushes and fonts. Stick with sans serif fonts (no brackets) for the most part due to the size of signatures. The little brackets on fonts can get pixelated.

Great, I like fantasy.