Depth-Ordered Compositing Workflow (Background-to-Foreground Build Sequence)

A manual-compositing organizing principle: build the image in the same order as the scene's physical depth, farthest element first, working layer by layer toward the camera. Rather than treating layer order as an afterthought, each stage is fully resolved — light, color, and integration — before the next, nearer layer is added on top of it, since every subsequent layer must match what's already been established behind it.

Example sequence (PHLEARN's sci-fi panorama course, fully manual/non-AI):

Background plate — stitch multiple source photographs with the Transform tool, blend edges for light and color.
Planets — masking + blend modes + color adjustment to sit in the sky.
Distant mountains — see Atmospheric Perspective Simulation (Distance via Light & Color).
Hand-painted spires/civilization on top of the mountains — see Hand Painting via Blend-Mode Targeting (Highlights/Shadow/Color).
City lights — duplicated/recolored light-flare photograph, plus cutout city-light photography perspective-transformed onto the mountains.
Foreground animal, then foreground people — cut out, light/color matched via Manual Light/Color Matching via Environment Sampling (Non-AI Composite Integration).
Finishing pass — motion blur for wind, final color grade, resolution/grain matching across every layer (see Camera Raw Grain to Unify AI Composite Texture) so the result reads as one photograph.

Complements Non-Destructive PSD Workflow (Layered Editing) (layer structure) by prescribing layer sequence — the order layers are built in, not just how they're kept editable.

Из тем: Manual Compositing Craft: Light, Color & Depth