Creating Drop Shadows Using Layers

Drop shadows are easy to create using layers in Photoshop. In this example, the framed picture is on its own layer (picture frame). The area around the frame is transparent, allowing the background to show through. 1. Make a copy of the first layer (picture frame) by dragging the layer name to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This copy (picture frame copy) is placed on top of the original layer. In Layers palette the active layer is highlighted and has a paintbrush icon next to it. The eye icons let you turn layers visibility on and off. 2. Select the original “picture frame” layer in the palette, and then use the move tool to offset the layer (which is underneath the copy). Release the mouse button when the layer is slightly offset. This will become the drop shadow. At this stage, the original and the copy are the same color(s). The arrow keys on the keyboard allow you to move the layer in onepixel increments. 3. For a more realistic shadow, select a foreground color other than black. In this example, we used the eyedropper tool to select a dark brown from the image. 4. Choose Edit > Fill. Select Preserve Transparency, and fill using the foreground color. There are typically a thousand ways to do everything in Adobe Photoshop, but selecting Preserve Transparency is the trick that makes this technique the fastest way to create a drop shadow. 5. Use the Gaussian Blur filter (Filter > Blur >Gaussian Blur) to soften the shadow. Here we used a radius of 7.0 for a 72-ppi image. For higher resolution images, you’ll need to use a greater radius value. Shadows add the illusion of three dimensions and are rarely hard-edged. Blurring the shadow adds realism and makes the main image stand out. 6. Combine the drop shadow with the background using the Multiply mode in the Layers palette. Using the Multiply mode on the shadow layer gives the effect of adding the shadow value and color to the texture and image of the background. This makes for a more realistic shadow since we usually see some texture and detail in real shadows.