How can I make my composite better - more realistic?

[tdpol]

I did this up the other day - selfie at home and added this background. it's not as realistic as I wanted.

Just wondering if there are some tips and trick the pros could share or tutorials out there. I took a look online and one of the was to brush on more color and blend mode that to soft light and lower opacity, just wonder what else?

What i did was:
- took average of my cutout and blend mode went to color (lowered opacity)
- increased contrast (twice) in Color Fx pro (tonal) - removed some from skin

 

[agentmoeller]

Just from a quick glance, one of the problems is that you have your subject, you, lit fairly conventionally, from the front, where the stadium background has an obviously strong light source directly behind you. In the real world, you would appear darker, more shadowed, even with frontal lighting. I would duplicate the subject layer, heavily darken it, add a layer mask, and paint away some of the darkness to let the highlights come through.

 

[tdpol]

After duplicating the layer, am i better off using a blending mode to darken, or curves or another adjustment (and clip it?)?

 

[agentmoeller]

That's the beauty/agony of Photoshop. Always more than one way to do it.