Good attempt. For me what would make this work is a better contrast to the lighting. You want it obvious that one is shadow and one is the actual hand. What would really work would be if you could replace the one shadow with the other. In other words, two photos where you see both the hand configuration and the reflected shadow, connected but with the separation being such that you can overlay the wolf shadow on the peace sign hand. Might require a bit of contorting your arm ... or rotating and otherwise free transforming one layer.
Quick and dirty, something along the lines of this (having more arm and shadow would make it easier - I just painted to give you the feel)...
View attachment 77123
YES!! That is similar to what was in my head, but it didn't make it through to the finished product. All in all, it was one of those WOW ideas at work, but I over-thought all the processes and manipulation it would take and didn't give the actual shot setup enough consideration. By the time I got home, I was weary and gave the attempt less than my full effort, and that's probably what led to my final disappointment. I didn't rearrange furniture around my blank space on the wall, so the camera was much too close for the nifty fifty, my light source (iPhone LED flash on flashlight mode) was not strong enough, the light source itself was from the left while what I was trying to do with the shadow could only happen with a light source from the right... I could go on, but I won't. Add to that the fact that my attempts at free-form manipulation on the shadow itself were frustrating me, and it was just too much. I gave up and went with what I had, promising myself that I would return to attempt this shot again VERY soon (like, say, this weekend). 3 shots instead of 2, better lighting, better composition, better starting point. Then, having a basic understanding of the tools from this botched 1st attempt, I'm hoping the improvement will be VERY noticeable!
2 things I learned: 1) The edge refinement tool on a cut/copy layer is FANTASTIC for manipulating shadows to get some DOF back! 2) A lesson you would have thought I had already learned: you can't half-ass a WOW idea and get a WOW result... this lesson has now been reinforced.
Ended up so frustrated that I had no motivation to get any other shots for the evening, but then couldn't sleep, so I got back up at about 1 a.m. Out of the blue, I spotted something random that I *HAD* to try and capture, so took a few shots and settled my mind... in the viewfinder, I think I got what I wanted, so we'll see when I get back home and actually import them. Discouraged, but not defeated!
I think I wanna go back to my abstracts though, although I guess this could qualify... I just need a night to take my time and do it better.
