Why Your Composites Look Fake (And the Lighting Logic That Fixes It)

The Mistake Nobody Talks About Out Loud Before I open Photoshop on any new composite, I sketch the entire scene on paper. Not a loose thumbnail. A real sketch, with arrows indicating light direction, rough shadow angles, and notes about color temperature. I started doing this after my first published composite came out, a movie poster for a small indie production, and I noticed immediately that one of the character’s shadows was falling in the wrong direction.