Thanks, Whiteling. It worked out really well and I am super-happy with it -- and I think what you say help explains why it works. It's the eyes. That's always one of the most difficult things in making an art manip work, making the faces relate within the context of the illustration. I like the Frodo manip massively better than the original photo which seems to portray the woman as hopelessly doting, but the man looking off into the distance, possibly at someone else, but from the set of his brow or chin, it's as though he were thinking harder thoughts. Whether he is a man about to embark on a difficult task or about to say, "I'm leaving you," her face says, "Don't."

It's a good photograph, but I like it as a romantic, amorous version in the manip's juxtaposition of faces far better.