Wednesday 4/13 fictional reality, next steps

1. Import a copy of your masked figures into your new background
2. Optimize placement and scale so that figure sits/fits naturally in the new background. Avoid "scaling up"
3. Optimize mask for new background. Some tweaks may be required to things like hair, etc.
4. Add highlight/shading to figure to match light source of new background (camera RAW adjustments can be useful for this)
5. Build shadows on new background
1. contact/drop shadows
2. extended shadows, progressively blurred
6. Resolve superimposition issues by masking individual elements. The "double layer mask" trick, where an additional layer mask is used on a group, can be helpful
7. Add atmospheric/lighting/special effects. Clipping masks can be helpful, to limit the effect of an adjustment to a single layer.

Useful tricks:

• Selectively darkening edges of hair with multiply curve with clipping mask and layer mask
• Grouping of layers
• The "double layer mask" trick, where an additional layer mask is used on a group. This allows the integrity of the original mask to be preserved.
• Clipping masks can be used to limit effects / adjustment to a single layer or group of layers
• Double layer shadow technique
• Conjoined/stamped layers (Shift+Option+Command+E onto blank layer)