Jay,
A method that I like to use for creating drop shadows is the following , especially when I’m adding people from another image.
I select the part of the image that I want to apply the shadow to, (easy if you are adding it from another photo) and I make two layer copies of it (one to each new layer). I use layer via copy function to do this. Then I select the lower of the 2 layers and change it to black (you can turn off the view of the top layer, for now, so you can see what you are doing). Then adjust the shadow layer’s opacity to 10-50% (whatever suits for your shadow strength) and then gausian blur this layer to make the sharp edges a bit fuzzy like a real shadow. Now use free transform to skew the top of this layer to match the sun or light source angle that’s in the background. If you turn on the top layer while working on the shadow layer you can better see what is happening as the shadow will appear to lean out from behind them. If the shadow needs to fall across the ground this will be all that you have to do, except maybe to go back and adjust the opacity or blur levels to suit. If the shadow has to go across the ground and then bend up over a wall, etc. you will need to select the top part of the shadow layer from where it intersects the bottom of the wall up and create another layer for this piece of the shadow, so you can again use free transform to bend this part of the shadow upward. Remember, all shadow layers need to be stacked between the background layer and the top image layer for it to look right and the vertical part(s) of the shadow is usually a little bit darker (more opacity) than the horizontal shadow layer(s). If you get the layers out of sequence you can drag the layer that’s in the wrong place to it’s proper position by clicking and draging the layer label in the layers menu up or down to it’s new position (shuffle the stack). You can’t move the background layer but you can move all of the rest to any position in the stack.
The above procedure takes a bit of practice, but it produces very realistic shadows, better than any other method that I have ever used. Of course, for complex shadows, you may need many more shadow layers. A long low angle shadow of a woman that I had to bend over a brick wall and then up the side of a car onto the car’s roof once took me 14 shadow layers to produce. It was the toughest so far.
Charley
"Jay Argee" wrote in message
I’m now using PSE 6.0 and have a question. In earlier versions there was
an
automatic drop shadow option as one of the frames. It worked very well. While I can emulate the capability, the result isn’t quiet as good. I’ve scoured the application and the almost-worthless help system and cannot locate the identical option. Can anyone please help?
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Regards and thanks in advance,
Jay Argee
If you believe in telekinesis, please raise my hand.
