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“Drop the Presets!” Create Your Own Unique Drop Shadow |
A Drop Shadow is a visual effect that gives an object an illusion of depth by placing a shadow beneath an object. It is often used functionally to draw attention to an object, say a button or a text box. Text is also sometimes rendered with a subtle drop shadow that further emphasizes it and pops it off of the background.
In Photoshop you have the ability to create a Layer Style of a Drop Shadow and go back and change it at anytime- that’s helpful! You can even make all the layer styles the same and create a Global Light that they will all retain.
Sometimes it is better though to just make your own-why? Well it is surely unique. By using this simple technique the Drop Shadow will be on its own layer and also just as easy, or easier, to edit later on in the process.
Step 1. Start by making a selection of the object. A lot of working in Photoshop is about making selections- so make it the best you can. Use a Magic Wand tool or Magnetic Lasso Selection and then jump into Quick Mask Mode and further refine the selection with the Brush tool. Zoom in on the pixels and make what you are working on fill the whole screen.
Step 2. Copy and Paste your selection onto a New Layer.
Step 3. Duplicate the layer one more time. Now you have 3 layers total- 2 with the object and 1 with the original photo or image.
Step 4. With the layer below the top layer selected open up Hue and Saturation. Slide the Saturation and Darkness all the way down till the layer is darkened out.
Step 5. Go to Filter/Blur/Guassian Blur and create a slight blur with a low radius.
Step 6. Move the layer around and create the angle that the light would be hitting the object above. Using the Transform controls you can manipulate the Skew, Scale, and Perspective of the shape. That’s it…
Extra: Play with the Layer Mode settings, Opacity, and also try applying a Pattern Fill to the shadow to give it some texture.
Side Note: With the anticipation of the June 29th release of the iphone I thought this graphic of the evolution of Apple’s work was very cool and informative…what does the future hold?
apple_evolution.jpg Click to view the full sized image.
(via: chomp-chomp)
Posted by Patrick Winfield at 12:17 pm
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June 29th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Hey Pat - Pretty cool. I like the drop shadow effect. It will be interesting to see this in websites.
Also, that apple evolution image, I remember the Apple IIe and the first Macintosh. Brings back fond memories of growing up and playing games on those systems. Thanks for sharing that!
June 29th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Jake- I grew up with one of those IIe’s also… makes you think of what they are going to be making in the next 30 years or more!