Personally i think v2. Is better.

v1:



v2

Cool I don't claim to know much about graphics, but there's a few things I would like to point out.

The background on both versions are pretty cool. I like the writing better in version one. Only I'm not sure about the blue, maybe it would look better in plain white? It looks more smooth and fitting some way. And I also think I in general prefer v1, to version v2.

Your render seems a little out of place, the colors fit good, but the render is a little (hm, how to phrase this?) edgy. It doesn't seem to blend that well, and to be frank there cut out is executed a little poorly. The cut out should be a little rounder. I hope you understand what I meant with this, I had a little trouble wording myself.

I love your style, with the Aslan and Gandalf sigs as well. Do you draw the *swoosh*es that are in the background? But yeah, I agree with LG, your render seems like it is a bit 'edgy', such as the back of his head - there's a corner there. I think you could try blending the render in a bit more, since right now it seems like its a piece of paper on top of your great background.

Edit: Oh, I realized why the render looks funny. It's rendered using straight lines, as in all the cuts are straight. Did you use a Magnetic Lasso or something to do it? The shoulder and bottom half of the hair on the right look strange, since they curve slightly and the cut that you made is straight.

Ok, thanks.



Kinda, but I use various brushes

Right, I've rounded the edges, and blended it in with the background.

v2. For comparison:



And the new one (v3):

Icky Render, please find another. Use a stock photo if you have to, but that is a really really really terrible looking render (not your fault either).

The backgrounds good though. As is the text. =) I'd find a different photo of Mr. Eldrond if you could, cause otherwise it just clashes.

Problem is, I want a piccy of him where the light is blue, rather than the orangy colour. I have swapped it for a similar photo, if that helps.

Before:


After:

That's what the color tools are for.

Wouldn't that make him all icky? Ok, I'll try it.
This new pic:



Into it. Now it looks like this:

That's a great render to use!

It's easy to give it a blue tint, just use a photo/color filter. It's really easy. Then when you transfer it to the sig, just match the colors. Then it should look fine. You might also want to make just a tad bigger, otherwise there will be too much empty space in the sig.

Another thing you might want to do is change the font and the opacity on the text. It just clashes with everything. I'd work on trying to make it more subtle. I liked in V1 how you gave it two different colors. You might want to try doing that for the text in the new version.

Right; Elrond version 6! I kept the font, becuase i want it to go with my other sigs. I've changed the colour and opacity of the type. I've left elrond the same size, because otherwise it is a bit too close up, IMO.

MUCH BETTER!

But the sig still looks a little empty. OH! If you added a white or light blue border, that might help tie things in a bit. The blue is also a little off in the bottom right.

I don't think there's too much more you can do with this setup, the sig is too simple to do anything to and have a good effect on it. Your biggest problem right now, I think is that the text is drawing too much focus to itself on the other side of the sig, apart from the render. This is creating two focuses on opposite sides, which is not a good thing. I'd start working on a new one, were I you, because honestly there isn't much you can do now, without starting from scratch, and have it look good. At least with this style.

Ooh, I like it better, but I think that you could make it slightly bigger, and then a bit lower and to the left. I also like how the shine on his face matches the light spot in the background, it makes the render look more like it's actually in the picture, instead of being a sticker on top. The old one had that too, but the positioning didn't match.

Also, the rendering on this one looks a lot better, but I think that you could blur his shoulders a bit. It might be just me but it looks like his left shoulder (camera's right) is sharpened and suddenly blurred right next to it. So yeah, since you have the blue glow around him, it looks a little odd since the shoulders are very sharp and then it has a bit of blue glow -- try blurring it a little.

Ah, and I agree with Ally, the blue in the lower right doesn't match the turquoise of the background, it's too blue.

Something along these lines?....





Sometime less is more What were you thinking anyway?

A border's fine and dandy, but honestly doesn't do too much. You don't need it, it may help some people visualize what you've done better against the background, but you don't really need it. Try putting some of those curly background lines over his jacket to help him blend in better, right now he's just kind of sitting atop a background. (It used to look really obvious, but its better now, you could still work on it though.)

EDIT:
Well...what I told you was what I was thinking. Its pretty much done. As you said "sometimes less is more", so stop changing it already. You can keep making little changes, but they aren't going to change the sig overall.

^ Yeah, you should probably put one of the swishes going over him, like the mid-colored one that arcs across the center and hits his right shoulder (left for the camera)?

Yeah, I like it how it is anyway.

This version is definitely the best. In the first versions, he looks kind of bald. This pic is better and I like what you did with the colors.