How to make white background keeping the existing drop shadow

CD
Posted By
Chris_Depto
Sep 8, 2006
Views
633
Replies
2
Status
Closed
I am working on several photos for a catalog in which the photographer has taken photos of the shoes on a white background with just a nice slight drop shadow. I didn’t want to create a clipping file because I wanted to keep the natural shadow. When in photoshop the background is not perfectly white so it shows when bringing into a white page in InDesign. I tried adjusting levels in Photoshop but by the time I get the backgrd to read 0 the shadow almost disappears. I tried just selecting the backgrd and leaving the shadow unchanged but any selection makes the edges of the shadow unnatural. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks Chris

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C
chrisjbirchall
Sep 8, 2006
select the white BG with magic wand etc including the shadow.

Make a levels Adjustment Layer. This will automatically have a layer mas based on the selection, sho when you lighten the background the subject will be unaffected.

Now take a soft brush at about 30% opacity and on the layer mask, "paint" the shadow back to the density required.
CD
Chris_Depto
Sep 9, 2006
Brilliant Chris J your a genius!!
It worked beautifully. Thanks a million, I have quite a few to complete in the next two days and you have saved me much time.
Chris D

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