How to make the "rocks" appear more realistic

[branderson]

Good afternoon!

I've been practicing with some new techniques in PS. I can't seem to get the "rocks" (pieces of blue blanket that I've copy and pasted into position) to appear more realistic.  Is it just a lost cause?  

I know the background isn't great but I haven't reached a conclusion on what to do wit that yet either. 

 

[branderson]

Cropped area

[Damien Symonds]

Shouldn't you have put the "rocks" in before running the plugin?

[branderson]

18 hours ago, Damien Symonds said:

Shouldn't you have put the "rocks" in before running the plugin?

I probably should have in retrospect. Would that make a large difference in their realism? 

[Christina Keddie]

55 minutes ago, branderson said:

I probably should have in retrospect. Would that make a large difference in their realism? 

Yes.   That's the whole point of the plugin -- to create ripples and reflections around the objects that are there before you add the water. 

[branderson]

33 minutes ago, Christina Keddie said:

Yes.   That's the whole point of the plugin -- to create ripples and reflections around the objects that are there before you add the water. 

Right, I get that. But it isn't particularly the reflection that is making them look unrealistic. Would you agree or disagree with that?

[Christina Keddie]

43 minutes ago, branderson said:

Right, I get that. But it isn't particularly the reflection that is making them look unrealistic. Would you agree or disagree with that?

I would disagree.  The fact that the rocks don't have the same reflection as everything else in the photo, plus the fact that you can see the continuation of the rocks below the surface rather than a reflection, plus the fact that the rocks have a soft blurry edge against the water line (rather than the rippling effect that the plugin would have created) -- all of that contributes to the lack of plausibility with the rocks.