The Edge That Kills Your Composite: A Working Artist's Guide to Masking That Actually Holds Up

The Problem Shows Up at the Edge I sketch every composite before I open Photoshop. Paper and pencil, sometimes in pen if I’m feeling confident about the direction. By the time I sit down at my desk and pull up the files, I already know where the light is coming from, where the focal point lives, and roughly how the elements are going to sit together. What I can’t sketch, and what still catches me off guard on difficult jobs, is the edge.