ooptea

what is the best way to make a real shadow. you know one that mirrors its source. the shadow effect is nice but how would i make a shadow of say a person standing up arms out and make it look real

Welles

Hi ooptea,

There are lots of ways but here's how I'd go about it.
1. First make a selection of the person (or object).
2. Layer > New > Layer Via Copy.(Control {Command} J)
3. Control (Command) click on the new layer to load the selection and fill it with black.
4. Control (Command) T to get free transform and distort the black filled person into the shape of a shadow.
5. Blur the shadow, using a layer mask prior to blurring if perspective blurring is needed (sharper near feet but more burred as the shadow gets farther from the original person, for example).
6. Change the blend mode to multiply and drop the opacity to suit the image.

Hmm... Is that enough for a start?

ooptea

ya that helps i just thought there might be something faster w/o the need for selecting.

tfoster

You mean like a filter? There are third party filters that do this (I used to have one that I believe was from Extensis called Perspective Shadow). But in the end it was doing the same thing Welles outlined. I always found it a lot quicker to do it Welles' way (the filter took a lot of time to figure everything out). Plus you have more control this way...selecting isn't that big of a step, pretty easy actually.

ooptea

im sure once i get the hang or it i will think so too but as a rookie ps user selecting items cleanly is a hard process right now. im sure it will just take time.

Welles

You sure will get the hang of it in time.

Making selections is one of the basic and most important skills in Photoshop for any serious manipulations. From Control A (Command A) select all or Control D deselect all, to Color Range from the Select menu, all the selection tools can work in conjunction with one another. So you can start with a marquee tool, for example, and then use a lasso tool, or the magic wand.

The trick is you add to a selection by using any of the selection tools while holding down the shift key and then subtract from the active selection by holding down the Alt/Option key. Each image has specific qualities which make different tools the best choice.

You save selections in the Channels palette as an alpha channel by clicking on the little 'save selection as channel' button at the bottom of the palette.

And that doesn't even address the quick mask mode where you can paint in a selection with varying degrees of transparency.
8D

Good Luck!