Compositing Projects Learning Path

What You’ll Learn

The fastest way to learn compositing is to build composites. The Compositing Projects Learning Path is seven project-based tutorials in rising order of difficulty, each one a complete image from source files to finish. It starts before Photoshop, with choosing images that will fit together, covers the fundamentals and tools, fixes the problem most composites have, perspective, and ends with two advanced conceptual landscapes made entirely from stock photos.

• 1. Choose images that will fit How to judge light, perspective, camera angle and lens before you start, so the composite is possible at all.
• 2. Learn the fundamentals Matching light, perspective, color and scale across source images, in twenty-two beginner lessons.
• 3. Master the essential tools Blend modes, clipping masks, color matching and masking, the twenty-two lesson tool course for compositing.
• 4. Get the perspective right Matching a subject’s perspective to a new background, the thing most composites get wrong.
• 5. Composite from the studio A subject shot on seamless, placed into three progressively harder locations: an ocean, a pier, a doorway.
• 6. Build a conceptual landscape from stock A full fantasy landscape from stock images: skies, mountains and ground blended into one scene.
• 7. Build a second one A second advanced project with more sources, matching light and color across all of them.

Who This Path Is For

Photographers and designers who want to make images that cannot be shot, anyone building a conceptual or fine-art portfolio, and compositors who have the tools but want to finish more projects.

You should know layers and layer masks. The compositing itself, from fundamentals to advanced, is taught here.

What You Need

• Photoshop Any recent version. The techniques are the manual ones that have not changed.
• Sample files Included for every project, including the stock images for the two landscapes.
• Layers and masks Assumed knowledge. If not, start with the Getting Started in Photoshop & Lightroom.
• Time per project The later projects are three to five hours of video each. Plan a weekend for each one.

For the current tools, including Harmonize and the AI first pass, see the Everyday Compositing Learning Path; for cutting the subject out, Cutouts & Backgrounds.

How Long It Takes

Seven tutorials and 78 lessons, about 28 hours of video. The two fundamentals courses are over five and over seven hours; the projects are two to five hours each. At one project a week, plan on seven to eight weeks.

Finish each project before starting the next, and keep the layered file. The later projects reuse the habits from the earlier ones.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a PHLEARN PRO membership?

Yes. This is a PRO Learning Path, so all seven tutorials and their sample files are included with a membership.

Compositing Projects or Everyday Compositing?

Everyday Compositing teaches believable real-world composites with the current tools. Compositing Projects is project-based and builds to conceptual, fantasy scenes. Magical Compositing is the advanced fantasy path; this one leads into it.

Where do the stock images come from?

The sample files for each project include the images used. For your own work, the first tutorial teaches how to pick stock that will composite.

Do I have to follow the order?

It is built to be followed in order, by difficulty. If you have composited before, start at step four.

Are the older tutorials still accurate?

Yes. Compositing is done with masks, blend modes, Curves and transforms, which have not changed. Newer AI tools can speed up the cutout step and are covered on other paths.

Where to Go Next

• Magical Compositing Learning Path The advanced fantasy path these projects lead into.
• Everyday Compositing Learning Path Believable composites with the current tools.
• Cutouts & Backgrounds Learning Path The cutout itself, from simple to difficult hair.
• Coloring Learning Path Color matching and grading that finishes a composite.
• Fantasy Composites Learning Path More full projects, this time fantasy scenes.
• Visual Effects Composites Learning Path Composites built around fire, water and light effects.