the only thing i could suggest at this point is to go in and add everything with the airbrush tool and darken up the blacks...

hope that helps = /

--
"Bang."

nope. The color scheme is the one thing I'm happy with.

My suggestion is the same as ~Anothen. Just add a little more depth and that's about it. Looks damn good other than that.

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~Jamie

JamieSula.com

go to image>adjust>... then 'levels' or 'brightness/contrast' will probably give you the best info. you can also go to image>mode>grayscale 'discard color' (on a saved copy) and tinker with very fine levels of contrast detail. you can then re-size a lowres copy of each of your images to the same pixel dimensions & drag & float one image (@50% transparency) over the other to check fine detail. another helpful thing to check is to reverse the images (image>rotate>flip horizontal)-- that will give you a fresh look at what you're doing.

looks good- though. it's easy to go blind with that kind of work & end up thinking it's bad when it's not.

Something to try on a copy of the original to see if it brightens it up better - In Photoshop, copy the layer, blur average on that layer. Make an adjustment layer of levels or curves, set the midpoint as that average colour, then delete the blur average layer but leave the level adjustment.

It should theoretically bring out more midtones, but sometimes it doesn't give that much difference.

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- To see is no longer to believe.

I think they're a little tall... shrink em down a hair

--
"On the road less traveled
In the land of the blind
Fortune favors the bull."

ah, i see. The 2 on the left at least. I think I matched the height of the women on the right correctly, at least?

One of the ways I get the likeness right when using a graph like that is to turn everything upside down. It forces you to draw EXACTLY what you see.

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Help support a more responsible administration, draft the Bush twins.

Whol jal dosst ilythiiri ssrig'luinen, alu ulu [link]

Personally I'd like to see it more saturated, or with more contrast. Dunno if that helps, but a simple adjustment of curves might do it.
As per the background, dunno. I suck at background so badly I can't really give suggestions, only maybe try to avoid something that'd rob the focus off the human figures, which are, by the way, perfect to a scary degree.

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Ah, God! what trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved revengeful desire. He sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.

---HERMAN MELVILLE, "Moby Dick" (chapter 44 - "The Chart")