Critique my Holiday Card please

[NicoleScraps]

I have been working on this for a while. I want have it done soon for printing.
I am pretty happy with the people in the frames. I just have a little bit of clean up work to do.
I am not loving ANY background that I choose. I just threw a Kraft background on here to give you all a peak.
Anything with a pattern, looks too busy. I have tried various shades of red and it's just meh.
Any suggustions for a background?



Or any other suggestions for the overall appearance of this? We were going for very different and fun. Not your average "drop a photo in a template" Christmas card.

[sk66]

I think it's quite good and better than most. Background is fine to me.
My only comment are two of the images don't have any "pop thru" and it's inconsistent with the rest. Almost like you got lazy with those two.

[NicoleScraps]

Originally Posted by sk66

I think it's quite good and better than most. Background is fine to me.
My only comment are two of the images don't have any "pop thru" and it's inconsistent with the rest. Almost like you got lazy with those two.

Thank you! I see what you are saying about the two photos. When I set the scene to take these photos, we used a real frame to give us reference. I took anywhere from 10-15 shots of each person and with those two, they really weren't sticking through the frame, does that make sense? Maybe I need to pick a different shot of them. Only problem is that the real frame in the un extracted photo cuts off the tops of their hats, just like shown here. Eh, I am having a hard time explaining.

[edbayani]

i like the layout but the people in the windows need more contrast and brightness. about the background, why not dark green so the windows become more prominent and change the color of the texts to red to be more festive?
hard to describe but i hope you don't mind i attached a rough edit.

[NicoleScraps]

Originally Posted by edbayani

i like the layout but the people in the windows need more contrast and brightness. about the background, why not dark green so the windows become more prominent and change the color of the texts to red to be more festive?
hard to describe but i hope you don't mind i attached a rough edit.

Cool suggestions!!! Thanks!!

[sk66]

I get it.
I wouldn't have used a real frame. The back of a dining chair (or similar) would have worked well for posing of arms/hands and there would be nothing "cut off" by the real frame.

[NicoleScraps]

There is another thing that bothers me, but it may just be me being nitpicky.

Top photo on the right, her right hand (left side) the pinky is over the frame in a weird way.
Does that stand out to anyone else? Or do you think that the average person wouldn't even notice?

[sk66]

I didn't notice until you pointed it out...
I don't think you need "perfection" for a christmas card...