Why Your Composites Look Fake (And It's Not the Lighting)

I once spent three days getting the color grade on a composite absolutely perfect. The shadows matched. The color temperature was consistent. The grain structure was unified across every layer. I sent it to the client, they loved it, and it shipped. Then I printed it out, pinned it to the wall above my desk, and stood back. The background was shot from roughly eye level. The subject, pulled from a different shoot, was photographed from about six inches below eye level.