Thanks everyone for the comments, they really are appreciated. It's this kind of feedback that helps me to understand where I'm going wrong and how to put it right.
merrak wrote:Looks pretty good so far. But there's a few things about the lighting that seem off to me. The biggest would be the girl in front - she has a shadow, but it looks to be in the wrong direction. The shading on her body suggests a light source to our right - about where the headlights are. Why doesn't Christine cast a shadow? The whole front of the scene also seems unusually bright.
Esper pointed out the same thing about the direction of Freddy's sister's shadow. It's weird but for all the time I spent looking at the image I never figured out that the shadow should go in the opposite direction. Now that the shading on her body has been pointed out it's as clear as day that the shadow falls the wrong way. I live and learn.
There's a shadow to the under side of Christine, but as to adding one that falls in a certain direction I've no idea which way it should go.
ZWard117 wrote:I have to agree, the way the characters and the way the background feels don't match. Its good don't get me wrong, but they lighting doesn't necessarily match and that adds a choppy flow to the image.
I was never particularly happy with the lighting, specially on the girl in the foreground. I'm learning that it's the hardest thing to get right and the most important.
All the really great works I see at DA hit the lighting spot on, which is something I've yet to achieve.
Graechan wrote:Those ladies would scare the hell out of me
Me too, trouble is I think most guys would stand there like a rabbit transfixed by a headlight glare if the girls walked toward them, only realising too late that they should run.
AnMal wrote:caz: scary ladies

. everyone else has commented on the light and shadows so i'm not gonna bring it up again. i really like the atmosphere you've created, once you get the light-and-shadow thing fixed this will be a really great picture.
i thought of helena bonham carter's character in "sweeney todd", surely she must have some fans on deviantart!
My original idea was to have characters from the classic 80s horror flicks, Halloween, Friday the Thirteenth, that kind of thing, but I do think it's a good idea to broaden the idea to take in more recent characters, not least because of the trouble I'm having finding suitable stock images.
It's too late to make any changes to the image I've entered into the competition, but I am going to keep working on this one and see if I can crack the lighting issues.
Thanks again for all the advice.