Only if you make a drop shadow by hand rather than using the Elements layer styles – I do drop shadows for my challenge entries this way usually: – select the object, create a new layer below the object, fill with black, or dark neutral colour of choice, deselect, gaussian blur, drop opacity of shadow layer and then free transform or perpective transform to lay the shadow flat on the surface according to the direction of light. You can’t do that neat PS trick of rendering the effect to a layer on its own. On the other hand Elements can do a neat trick that PS can’t – the command "simplify layer" will render all the effects and the layer that they are on onto one editable layer – you seem to have to merge down onto a new blank layer to do this in PS.
Susan S.
Susan … when you say create a new layer below the object do you mean duplicate the object layer?.
Neat tip I picked up from my favourite book is that a shadow becomes more diffused as it gets futher away so after the initial bluring do a little more just on the distant parts of the shadow.
In PS you can do: Duplicate object layer, move below original, use the built in create drop shadow THEN do Layer>Layers Style> Create Layer. That moves the effects to its own layer.
Wendy
Wendy – no, a new blank layer so the shadow is on its own layer and when you transform only the shadow gets distorted. And then you can use a gradient mask to get the blurring (and the density also) to vary with distance. I haven’t got to that chapter of How to Cheat yet – I’m still at the "where has that tool got to?" stage with CS! (Apart from the RAW converter – I’ve got the hang of that OK!)
Susan S
Hi Susan,
Now I get it …
I have a quick way I sometimes use to create a drop shadow:
Duplicate the object layer, and put it below then use the Edit>Fill with black or a dark shade … that gives you an instant shadow on its own layer. It just needs adjusting for blur opacity etc.
Wendy
Mark,
The nearest you will come to that in Elements is Windows>Layer Styles>Drop Shadows. If you want to change the shadow you then need to go to your layers palette and click the little "f"symbol to the right of the thumbnail. You will be able to change shadow angles etc. The drop shadows are not as editable as they are in Photoshop but you can still get a good effect.
I didn’t realise it was a text drop shadow you were trying to do … we have been giving you information on how to do the sort of drop shadow a person casts on the ground.
Wendy
Mark, you need to uncheck "global light" and then you can drag the shadow around where you want it.
Wendy,
I wasn’t necessarily trying to do text effects with drop shadow. More interested in getting a selected object to cast a shadow in the direction I want it.
Barbara…Thanks
