Whatever you put a drop shadow on must be inside the frame of the document.
So if the picture is 3 x 5 you need the document to be 4 x 6 and the and the picture has to be on its own layer.
You can’t put a drop shadow on the background layer.
Thanks, Buko. As for the first instruction, the larger frame, can I simply increase canvas size by say 10%, or must I create a whole new doc? As for the picture being on its on its own layer, you mean simply make a copy of the background layer, right? Then what? I click add layer style in the layers palette, and then drop shadow to address a selected rectangle but nothing happens. I must be missing something…no?
If you just want a drop shadow around the whole photo,add the larger canvas size like you said, drag the rectangle marquee around your photo and do layer-new-layer via copy,and then do your layer style drop shadow,and you will be good to go.
If you do the dupe layer before you enlarge the canvas you get an exact size on the pic.
That worked. Thanks to you both. True, had to dupe the layer before enlarging canvas. Then the marquee, then layer style drop shadow. And I’m away. Thanks again. Much appreciated.
If you dupe the layer first there is no need to use the marquee.