When Composites Don’t Play Nice
with Sandra Dann
Every composite has a moment where it stops cooperating.
The selection that should have taken a minute doesn’t work. The edges look wrong. The perspective is off and you cannot say why. Or two elements simply refuse to look as though they belong in the same picture.
This is the evening Sandra Dann spent on exactly that.
What makes this one unusual is what she brought. Most sessions show you the good work. Sandra opened her own archive and went through the pictures that did not come off, including a camera club entry that did badly and a composite she rebuilt five times and never fixed. She explains what was wrong with each one and what she would do now. As she put it on the night, what you don’t see is all the terrible stuff that I did to learn.
What she covers
She works through five of her own composites from the bare layers up, and demonstrates live throughout:
Reading a photograph before you use it, and knowing when it cannot be rescued
Blending each element as you go, rather than fixing everything at the end
Fixing a colour mismatch with blend modes
Choosing textures for the colour and depth they add, not for the texture
Grounding an element so it stops looking stuck on
Redirecting a line in a landscape with an old lasso and flip trick
Painting a sky from nothing
Softening a hard horizon with a single blurred strip
Sculpting light with a 50% grey layer
Cutting out with a square brush, and why the default soft round brush fails
Preparing a background, placing an element and blending it in with Harmonize and a grass brush
What people said on the night
“Wow! That is such a great way to soften the horizon.” — Suzannah
“I loved how quickly that square brush worked, gave such a great edge.” — Elaine
“I was engrossed. It is brilliant and wonderful to hear the narrative along the way.” — Gina
“I feel inspired to try a composite again.” — Moira
“Excellent tutorial, I could have listened all night.” — Elaine
“It’s hearing her thought processes as she creates.” — Sharon
“Inspiring, thank you so much. My next photo shoot will be a wheat field.” — Gill
Who it is for
Anyone who makes composites, or wants to. You do not need to be a Photoshop expert and you do not need to work the way Sandra works. If you have ever abandoned an image because one part of it would not behave, this is for you.
About Sandra
Sandra Dann is a digital artist and educator, and an Adobe Community Expert. Through SandraD Imagery she teaches Photoshop, digital art and creative storytelling, blending photography with imagination, colour and texture. Her style is relaxed and down to earth, and she cares as much about building your confidence as your technique.
From Mark
Sandra joined us from Australia, which means her alarm went off in the middle of the night, and she was still cheerful when the sun came up behind her at the end. The room did not thin out once, which does not always happen on a technical evening.
What I took from it was not a technique. It was watching somebody work without a safety net, change her mind out loud, and say when something had not worked. There is more to learn from that than from a polished demonstration.
What you get
The full session, streamed, for 1 month.
There is a written guide to go with it.
29 pages, step by step, in the order Sandra worked. Her actual settings, screenshots from the evening, and the time each step appears in the recording so you can jump straight to it. A glossary, the questions asked on the night, a page of what commonly goes wrong, and a one-page summary to print.
Unlike the recording, the guide does not expire. It is yours to keep.
