Overlays dress a finished picture
Material character is the last layer, not the first rescue. Color, crop, and content decisions belong to earlier work — the photo adjustment workflow owns color looks, and the compositing workflow owns merging two real images. What happens here is deliberately synthetic: a new layer of texture, grain, geometry, or mirrored space is generated and laid over a picture that is already right. Starting from a finished image is what keeps the overlay a styling decision instead of a patch over a problem.
Mask first, dress second
An unmasked effect is a gamble with the subject's clarity. Masks — by shape, by gradient, or by custom definition — decide where material may land before any of it exists, which is why masking opens the workflow. The payoff shows at the edges: material that fades out along a gradient boundary leaves no hard seam, and the subject keeps the crispness the composition depends on. Check the mask boundary after dressing, since halos there betray a mask made too casually.
Material whispers, pattern speaks
Grain and texture operate below attention as atmosphere — film feel, paper tooth, fabric weave — and succeed when a viewer senses the surface without identifying the layer. Patterns do the opposite: a grid, dot field, or stripe set is a graphic element that joins the layout and demands the same spacing and alignment care as any other element. Mixing both is legitimate, but the loudness must be budgeted — a shouting pattern over shouting texture produces static, not character.
Reflections change the geometry
A water reflection is the one overlay that alters the canvas itself, growing the composition downward. That makes it a layout decision as much as an effect — the mirrored base needs room, the seam between original and reflection needs believable blur and transparency, and the final dimensions must match what the delivery slot expects. Used deliberately, it turns a tight product shot into a grounded hero; used reflexively, it just makes the file taller.