Lighting is my least favorite part of banner making, but like Every and Doc have said, I think that's the issue here. What you might consider doing is blurring and burning along the neck to gently gradiate it darker.Levi DAmico wrote:
I need some advice...
Becca likes it, but, am I just being overly critical?
I feel like... I like the background and I like that shot of Enver, but I'm not sure they gel. :/
Is that a drop shadow behind the body?
If so, I'd get rid of that, and instead paint in the shadow manually, which should make it easier to blend.
What I usually do is pick a focus point on my banner, and set the shadows around it. For example, I will create a gradient layer for white to create my lighting effects, and set that to soft light (fiddle with opacity), then have another layer for shadows, to darken everything else in a gradient so that the edges of the banner are the darkest and the eye is pulled directly where you want it.
Btw, I think the banner looks GREAT as is. It's not a 'scene' banner like most of mine are, so my tips probably don't really apply as well as they would to one of mine >.<
So take everything I've said with a grain of salt, just trying to relate a few ideas about how to address the light on the back of the neck thing.
I love the use of color.