Realistic Drop Shadows

gracielou

gracielou

New member
I know this has been discussed here before but I am wondering if anyone has any new tips to share. I am new to digital. I have done paper scrapping for 7 years and started doing digital about 6 months ago. I ran across pages done by "Purple Colours" the other day and I was blown away by her drop shadows. Every element looked like I could pick it up off the screen. I am dying to know how this is done. I have read a couple tutorials today and played around a little but I am still just so frustrated that I cannot do it as well as I want to be able to. I am using PSE 6.0. Thank you to anyone who is willing to help a newby like me love digital even more.
 
Lemme pull up the Misty Cato tutorial that I SWEAR by. It's a little overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it it becomes second nature.
 
Here's a thread in our forum from a little while back (February) that might help. Help with Drop Shadows.
I am still playing and learning all the time and find I flip and flop between different methods depending on my mood and how much effort I want to put in at the time and what Ive read that I want to try. Its not an exact science for me.
 
One thing that I have found, that I really think helps, is to change the blend mode of the shadow to Linear Burn. You might also need to lower the opacity just a touch if you do that. :)
 
I've never paper scrapped, but since I decided to do my own shadows, I try to picture the shadows how I think they would look if I stood over a paper layout and took a picture of it. I'm sure that sounds bizarre to most people, but it's how I do it. I just take the regular drop shadow and fiddle with it, until it's how I like. No scientific stuff here LOL
 
The only other link I have in my resource links thats shadow related is to Jen Strange's Blog. She gives several other links. There are a lot of resources out there and varying suggestions on personal preference.

Since Im not a PSE user I dont think I can be very helpful but if you want to try Sara's suggestion you might find the "blendmode" option box at the top of the Drop Shadow dialogue box.

If you really love the way someone handles drop shadow work you could always pop them a PM admiring their technique and asking if they could share any tips - that might be a good way to go. Most people would be very happy that they managed to inspire you in such a way.
 
newfiemountiewife said:
I've never paper scrapped, but since I decided to do my own shadows, I try to picture the shadows how I think they would look if I stood over a paper layout and took a picture of it. I'm sure that sounds bizarre to most people, but it's how I do it. I just take the regular drop shadow and fiddle with it, until it's how I like. No scientific stuff here LOL
Click to expand...

I have paper scrapped and always go by them when doing digital stuff. But of course then you're also kind of going by your light source and that a whole different thread!! LOL
 
I use the method that Colleen recommended to me in the Feb thread and I'll never go back. It is time consuming at first, but after doing it for a little while, it's just second nature and it doesn't take me long at all now. I've been so happy with my shadows lately and how much more control I have over them now vs. when I was using the normal drop shadow in PS.
 
So I went and followed along with Misty Cato's tut... everything worked perfectly until I got to the "warp" part... I don't have that (I'm using PSE 3... I know I know...lol). So I can't do that little "curve the corners" bit... :(
 
i'm almost positive Misty later posted an alternative for PSE users who can't warp . . . or was that someone else . . .

you could try using your smudge tool to bring out the shadow layer a bit
 
i use the regular drop shadow layer styles, play with them a bit. and i also use the Misy Cato way. i have PSE6 and i go to Image>Transform>Distort to 'warp' my shadow. i don't do this for everything, usually just photos, and ribbons. but it does look more realistic. I'm still learning!
 
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