I love trying to composite fictional characters into reality(cry). Sometimes in the process of compositing the character into a real-life photo, I feel like the characters have came to life...As though my monitor has become "their reality".
The background photograph of the first two works were taken on the UPenn campus, as I wanted to try and build a connection as though the characters were one of the students like I am, traversing the campus everyday...waiting for a friend beside a building...having a walk in the rain near Penn Museum....
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Anyways, for some technical stuff, here's my own workflow for CG Compositing for virtual characters:
First rig the character in blender, and set up the real-life image as the background plane of my virtual camera (make sure the resolution and focal length are the same), then start posing the character and try to find a good composition. After I'm happy with the composition and the general shot, I try to replicate the lighting and shadows, as if the character has always been a part of the original image. A lot of the times this involves rebuilding some geometry inside Blender to match the structures in the real photo. Finally go into Davinci Resolve or Photoshop for some color-grading and post-processing.
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(I didn't make the character models, just rigged it! character model credit to 椛暗)