Great for paper mats and paper layering.
•Click on the layer you wish to add a shadow
•Press “Ctrl + J” to duplicate the layer
(TIP: rename layer 1 to “shadow”)
•Make sure your foreground colour is black
(TIP: pressing the letter “D” will return to the default colours – black & white)
•Press “Alt + Shift + Backspace” to fill the shadow layer with black
•Choose “Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur” and move the radius slider to the amount of blur you want….(I usually choose between 2 and 3 pixels) > click OK
(TIP: if you can’t see the edge of the shadow, hold your cursor over the edge of the shadow and it will appear in the preview screen)
•Click on the move tool then press the right arrow once and the down arrow once- this will move the shadow one pixel to the right & one pixel down (this will give a similar effect to s pre-set drop shadow)
•Lower the opacity of the shadow layer until it looks realistic
•Select the Smudge tool. In the Options Bar the Mode should be “Normal” and the “Strength” at 50%
•Adjust the brush size (for the smudge tool) until it is the correct size to warp the shadow.
•Click along the edge of the shadow and make VERY, VERY small movements away from the mat to enlarge the shadow or towards the mat to decrease shadow.
•Adjust opacity again if needed.
TIP: Not happy with your results? HOW TO USE UNDO HISTORY
Rather than start again, go into Undo History and return the action
just before you started using the smudge tool. (see photo below).
Click on "Nudge" action and all smudge actions will no longer be highlighted. Then go back to your page and start to smudge again.
NOTE: If you decide not to delete all smuge actions (for example, you decide to keep the first 2) by clicking on the smudge action 3 from the top, your work is back again. I encourage you to become familar with undo history, it is far less time consuming than Edit > undo or Ctrl > Z.
1. (b) CREATING A CUSTOM SHADOW
SITE STATISTICS
