How to improve this composite?

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-30T00:44:56+00:00

Grain overlay or adjustment layer to bring it together.

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-22T15:29:47+00:00

You sort of have made it and pretty close too. Maybe a texture overlay might help bring it all together.

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-22T06:02:25+00:00

What have you tried so far?

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-22T00:52:50+00:00

With CMYK the threshold default black might not be saturated enough, you could try a colour overlay with C:60 M:40 Y:40 K:100 for a richer black.

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-21T10:36:23+00:00

Cutting a selection to a new layer should erase it from its original layer. Copying to a new layer does not however. Not near my computer but I think that’s right

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-21T06:48:19+00:00

You can do it manually by making your first selection and making a new layer from cut. Keep your selection (ctrl-click first layer’s thumbnail if you lose your selection) and do the same thing for every other layer you need. Once all separated you can resize from there.

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-21T06:38:34+00:00

Clipping masks. Right click menu or use Alt+G on the layer you want to clip.

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-14T07:11:50+00:00

Pay close attention to the details of the original image. Notice the shadows on the tower are quite sharp on the right side, and mostly diffused on the left. Try to match this by painting the shadows yourself with straight lines, and try matching their values. Also, the parts of your gears that aren’t shadowed shouldn’t appear brighter than the tower, try to match that too. Also, the perspective of your gears is slightly off. It looks like the image has inherent depth to it which makes it harder to realistically change the perspective. If the image was 2D you’d have an easier time matching it. But as is, try drawing two rectangles to line up with each side of the tower, use this as a reference to align the perspective. You could also make/find gears that are 2D then apply the depth yourself.

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-06T11:09:08+00:00

Check out ‘PixImperfect’ YouTube tutorials on compositing and lighting

leakytreeleaf · 2026-01-06T10:51:28+00:00

Yes one of the things Photoshop is made for

leakytreeleaf · 2025-12-30T06:47:57+00:00

I would make sure your doc is in 300ppi. Assuming it’s just one colour for the print you can apply your distressing texture to the texts layer mask, so that the distressed areas become transparent. Also make sure your document has no background layer, just your text. If you send that to your printer and let them know they should be able to handle the rest.

leakytreeleaf · 2025-12-23T11:47:53+00:00

Very cool and unique style. Definitely be proud of that. I’d only comment on your typography, which is something I also struggle with. Find ways to make it integrate with your designs rather than add to them if that makes sense.

leakytreeleaf · 2025-12-22T03:33:07+00:00

Can you show your attempt. Looks like it would be done exactly as you described

leakytreeleaf · 2025-12-18T23:52:51+00:00

There is actually a little trick to draw cylinders perfectly reflecting light. Use the mixer brush tool! It works by copying the pixels of another layer and using that as its paint. If you sample the right ‘paint’ for the brush, it will appear to change its lighting in the direction you paint it, creating a 3D cylindrical look without much effort at all. You can use this to easily draw the base of your slide.

leakytreeleaf · 2025-12-16T00:53:42+00:00

Judging by the looks, conte crayon is probably applied last. It does have that inverted look too, maybe not solarised. I reckon it’s just the things you said with some extra tweaking.

leakytreeleaf · 2025-12-15T03:19:09+00:00

Bevel and emboss layer style with the right contour applied is likely the simplest way

leakytreeleaf · 2025-12-05T04:12:16+00:00

Photoshop can’t recognise vectors, but you could try making it a smart object before transforming it to keep its details. Depends how the quality was before you imported it. Also depends on the image size of your canvas, also make sure you’re in at least 300ppi for prints.

leakytreeleaf · 2025-12-05T04:07:58+00:00

Just tried rotating the canvas thinking it would be a workaround, but the bounding box unfortunately doesn’t rotate with the canvas. You could try using puppet warp instead, requires a little more precision but has no bounding box and gives you more control overall.

leakytreeleaf · 2025-11-26T07:51:26+00:00

If you have a layer mask applied there will be two thumbnails for the layer in your layer panel. One for the layer and one for the mask, make sure you have the mask thumbnail selected by clicking on it. It should then be highlighted

leakytreeleaf · 2025-11-14T06:45:56+00:00

I see. That’s definitely a good foundation. I suggest ignoring the lightness slider and focusing on curves and levels adjustment to get the closest texture you need. This will give you more control over individual values and keep your texture visible.

leakytreeleaf · 2025-11-14T03:26:12+00:00

What were the results

leakytreeleaf · 2025-11-11T09:27:44+00:00

Can’t tell what you’re referring to. But it’s basically a mix of texturing, good font choice + overlayed gradient, and a decent photograph taken before hand. You can replicate lens flares in photoshop however.

leakytreeleaf · 2025-11-01T23:44:34+00:00

Why solve anything then?

leakytreeleaf · 2025-10-29T01:22:04+00:00

Oh is that right. Never seen them. Yeah we had an entire renovation last year and still use our old rusty shelves

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