The Edge That Gives You Away: How to Master Masking in Photo Compositing

Every composite I’ve ever made has lived or died at the edge. Not the center of the image, not the lighting, not the color grade. The edge. That two-to-five pixel boundary where your subject meets a new background is where the human eye goes hunting for a reason not to believe you. And for years, I gave it reasons. I sketch every composite on paper before I open Photoshop. Part of that habit started because it forces me to think about where my subjects will sit in the frame, but the deeper reason is that it makes me plan my masks before I cut a single pixel.