Talk to me about drop shadows....

lorigaud

lorigaud

Well-known member
I have traditionally used 45° shadows.... but more often than not, I have to change the shadows when I use a template, because they're set at 120°. Which do you use, and why? Is there something I should know? Thanks for any info. :)
 
I use 120. I just like the look. It looks more natural to me as I'm working. No particular reason beyond that. I don't look at someone's page and say their shadows are at the wrong angle, I just like mine at 120 or there abouts...
 
It's all just personal preference, there is definitely no right or wrong. I prefer the light source to look like it's coming from the upper right hand corner of my canvas, so I almost always use 40°. Occasionally, I will use 120° ... but I very, very rarely would choose something where the light source is coming from either bottom corner.
 
I use 45 degrees too, because if I were reading the scrapbook, the light would be coming from the front of me and to one side, not from behind (i.e. bottom of the page). If it was behind me, my body would block the light, kwim?
 
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Sherri Tierney said:
I use 120. I just like the look. It looks more natural to me as I'm working. No particular reason beyond that. I don't look at someone's page and say their shadows are at the wrong angle, I just like mine at 120 or there abouts...
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This is me. And, I always change the shadows on templates if they are at a different angle to begin with. That's really easy to do if you have some styles set up.
 
It depends on the page and elements, and sometimes the picture. I don't have one standard set degree.
 
I like my light source to be coming from the upper left corner and set at 120. This just feels right to me. I think it's because I live in the Western part of the US and I always equate the left hand side of a page with the West! lol
 
MIne are -45, I just liked the look of that once I changed from 120! But I don't really notice other people's angles, just as long as all the elements have the same angle.
 
I'm a 45 as well. I've recently started paying a lot more attention to them trying to improve my shadowing skill set.
 
I usually use 45 but I have played with other angles. Sometimes the elements in the kit, the photo, or the theme lends itself to another angle. A few of my layouts are a bit shadow-schizo and use a few different angles within the same page. I just do what looks right to me sometimes. :p
 
YepBrook said:
I usually use 45 but I have played with other angles. Sometimes the elements in the kit, the photo, or the theme lends itself to another angle. A few of my layouts are a bit shadow-schizo and use a few different angles within the same page. I just do what looks right to me sometimes. :p
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This is absolutely me :p I tend to shadow my layouts zoomed out so I can see how it all looks, and I shadow each element as I how I think would be realistic, lol.
 
I always do my shadows differently, they are never the same on any of my pages, and I don't use shadow styles, my shadows are typically set for 60 degrees, but this greatly depends on where I place my lighting effects on my background paper, if my page is designed to the lower of the page then my shadows and lighting will be set differently to when designed at the top of the page, I love playing around with shadows and making them look real and almost being able to touch the elements
 
I usually have my shadows set so that I'm assuming light source is coming from upper left corner. I don't use PS so can't say what degree that is.
 
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