Best way to apply shadows to solid object on white background?

JB
Posted By
jason_bangs
Aug 9, 2004
Views
931
Replies
3
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Closed
I have been tinkering around with applying backgrounds to some of the images I receive from various companies. Most of these images are processed already, with the object on a white background. A few look too "matrix" looking and need shadows. The method I was trying was; Wand, Inverse, copy, paste and then apply drop shadow. But I cannot get it to look like a real shadow.
I have included random img w/0 a background for an example. I am using ps 7. What is the best way to do this?

<http://www.onlineshoes.com/images/11979lg.jpg>

Thanks in advance.
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rrose_selavy
Aug 9, 2004
The image you’ve shown has it’s own shadow of the top portion of the sandal …. so to be realistic, the new shadow of the whole shoe you want to create has to match the light source angle and intensity of the existing shadow. Make a copy of the shoe. Convert it to the appropriate shade of grey by whatever method you prefer. Add a bit of gaussian blur? Then use Edit.Transform>distort to make the perspective angles of the shadow comply with the light source angle and direction.
R
rwwilson
Aug 13, 2004
If the sandal is on its own layer, in other words with a transparent background, you can copy the layer in the layers palette,(drag the layer to the duplicate layer icon in the layers palette)Ctrl-click the duplicate layer of the sandal, this will select the only pixels on the layer, the sandal, then fill with BLACK, gaussian blur it distort it etc, then you can adjust the opacity of that layer to get the look to the shadow that you want. Also, there may be folks out there that dont know that you can give an object on a transparent background a drop shadow, then go to LAYER-LAYER STYLE-CREATE LAYER and turn the drop shadow into a seperate layer, you can then adjust opacity, even erase portions of the shadow etc.
JH
Jeff_Holmes
Aug 18, 2004
You can also use the lasso tool and roughly trace the shape of the shoe at the correct perspective based on the angle of the light source. Then feather the selection at 20 pxls or more and fill with black on a new layer. Then adjust the opacity.

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