I wonder

[katalen]

all these were taken by me (pic's are of me too) with the 10 second timer on my camera and the backgrounds put in after, and advice or comments?

my backgrounds are from Owen's originals and Ezbackgrounds.

[theantiquetiger]

The look very bad (sorry about being frank). The shots of you in each image are sharp, but the fake background is soft (especially the 2nd one around your feet). It looks like you are floating in all the images. The third one is the best (IMO). It almost works, especially from your knees up. The the lack of definition of a floor throws it off. The second one also looks good from about knees up, but once again, the soft tile against you sharp feet just does not match.

The layering is flawless, mixing the BG with you. I cannot see any seams.

[katalen]

well if you say they suck then i guess they do ..... but i find if i soften 'me' it goes all blurry and doesn't look good.

[theantiquetiger]

well if u say the suck then i guess they do ..... but i find if i soften 'me' it goes all blurry and doesn't look good.

I didn't say "suck", they just don't work. After looking at the again, they all work from your knees up. If you just look at #2 from your knees up, I wouldn't tell you are not in that archway. The shadows even match somewhat. Like I said in my first post, your work is flawless, it's just your backgrounds are not working with your feet.

[katalen]

I know just my way of saying that lol I have always complained that backgrounds are not designed for anything other then half body shots just wish i could get it to work right.

[Realist]

I would say get rid of your feet, as they don't align with the background. Second I would use a blur brush if you have a program that does that, and use it on your outline only to soften it up. The blur with blend it in while leaving everything else sharp.

[Iguanasan]

Is there a reason why you feel the need to add a fake background? I'd be more interested to see how these were shot before you layered in the fake background. Were you using a white background? I'm thinking it would just be easier to do some location shoots to avoid all the PP work and make it look much more natural.

[JAS_Photo]

One of the major reasons people have been critisizing your bg's is because of the lack of shadows. You got to sell the "fake" so to speak. Your cut outs are great, you just need to go the extra steps and "finish" the photos.

A quck little tutorial:

How to Remove a Background, Then Add Another - Photoshop CS5 - YouTube

[Marko]

Jas nails it. I agree that you look like you are floating on these artificial looking backgrounds due to a lack of shadows.

That said, the blend is fab and sharpness is good.

I'm thinking it would just be easier to do some location shoots to avoid all the PP work and make it look much more natural.

I agree with Iggy, I think you should take the time to develop a real background at this learning stage - because how to light a background is very important. For shots like these it's easy.
2 lightstands - 2 super-clamps - a rod of some kind (even a shower rod or cupboard rod) and 15-20 feet of material (or grey seamless paper) preferably already on a roll. OR some location background that works with your scene.

Hope that may help.