Need some critiques

[carterhickmandesigns]

Hello Keyshooters!  I need to get some critiques on this rendering.  What can I do to make the vehicle and the background seem more like they were shot together?  I have thick skin so anything you say will be viewed with open eyes as that is the only way I will get better.   You can also find a larger resolution file http://carterhickmandesigns.com/testing/Escalade%20Test.jpg

[Magnus Skogsfjord]

Great start! I've sent you an email to ask if I can post an edit of the picture and give you some pointers. I'm not an avid automotive renderer though, but you can of course decide for yourself by the result if you want to take them into account or not.

[carterhickmandesigns]

Magnus, please post away this is why I posted it here

Carter

[Magnus Skogsfjord]

Deleted: Looks like the more experienced automotive renderers has given a better verdict. Resigned

[rembem]

There's something with the perspective, it doesn't feel right

[mattjgerard]

Its the lens. The lens is too wide for the backplate. there is too much perspective warp on the front on the truck, whereas there isn't the matching perspective warp on the backplate.  If you watch car commercials that have the front corner camera rigs that are wide angle-ish, the background is even wider and more distorted than the vehicle.  this looks like the standard 35mm default lens, if it was bumped to 50 or 85 I think it would match the background a bit better.

The hood and front grill look exaggeratedly big compared to the back of the truck, whereas the bricks on the sidewalk near the front of the truck don't have that same exaggerated large look as the hood and grill area of the truck.

Still, looks pretty good. I read a tip somewhere about sampling the blacks in the background and tweaking the blacks in the render to match the blacks in the background. That alone has helped a lot of my renders.

[JonWelch]

I definitely agree with whats been stated above, especially about the perspective. But the biggest thing standing out to me is that the contrast of the render doesn't match the contrast of the Backplate. You can see really deep blacks and really bright highlights in the image, where as the render is very washed out in comparison, you could probably fix this with some levels in Photoshop, or go back into the render file and mess with the contrast/brightness/gamma settings. Hope this helps!