Loading ...Shadows and lighting are the two elements that combine to give your digital projects depth and realism. When you create shadowing it is imperative to remember that the light source for each element on a page comes from the same direction. (Usually the top left.)
The bulkier the item, the deeper your shadow should be. For example, you would want a heavier shadow on a button than on a strip of paper to give the illusion that the button sits higher on the surface of the layout. Many purchased kits provide elements with the shadowing already in place and the depth determined by the designer. These elements reside happily in your layouts in most cases, but what if you want to rotate an element in a different direction?
By way of example, let’s study the shadowing on this digital image of a pencil that I intend to add to a collage of various other items.
As you can see, the shadowing on the original element is quite pronounced and gives the illusion of depth when the pencil is horizontal and pointing towards the left of the page.
If I flip the pencil horizontally in order to have the point facing to the right of the page, the shadowing in now on the top of the pencil and will throw off the composition of the layout.
In order to add your own custom drop shadowing to the element after rotating it, you will first need to remove the pre-existing shadowing applied by the designer.
1. In the Layers palette, CTRL-Click (CMD-Click for Mac users) directly on the thumbnail of the document layer containing the pencil. The selection will be indicated by “marching ants.”
2. From the Select menu, choose Inverse to set the selection to the area outside of the pencil. Notice the change to the “marching ants” indicating the selected area.
3. Press the DELETE key on your keyboard to remove the shadowing. You may have to repeat this step several times to completely erase all traces.
4. From the Select menu, point to Modify, choose Feather and set the Feather Radius to 1 pixel. Press the Delete key again. This step removes any “jaggie” edges that may have been left behind.
You now have a pencil completely devoid of any shadowing ready to rotate into any position desired in your project. Note that it now looks very flat on the page.
5. Drag the edited image into the document containing your project in progress. In the Layers palette, select the layer containing the edited image.
6. From the Edit menu, choose Free Transform and rotate the edited image into the desired position using the bounding boxes.
7. Add a new drop shadow using your desired settings and method…done…in a few simple steps that can make a huge difference in the appearance of your layout!
Credits: Digital background paper by Katie Pertiet of DesignerDigitals.com. All other elements by Ronna Penner of Scrapadelic.com
Great. Very easy to follow.
Very useful info. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing! I have found that in many cases you can simple flip the object too instead of rotating (or after rotating), on it’s layer with transforming tools. Saves time for me at least. :)
Thanks so much–this is always an issue for me.
cool! thanks. C.
Thx, Pattie!
I’ll have to try your method. I usually use the magic eraser with the ‘continuous” box checked to get rid of unwanted shadows and/or backgrounds. I even use the ‘quick select’ feature for certain elements.
Sometimes, I get a ragged edge as you describe; feathering may fix that problem for me. Good tip.
this is so easy to fallow, thank you for sharing this tut:)
Thanks for this, Pattie…a very easy technique, but one that is so easy to forget when doing a layout with pre-shadowed elements.
That was a great, needed tip. Thank you.
Now, how did you get the shadow under the glasses!!
Nice tut, Pattie. In this particular instance you could have just flipped the pencil left to right and then the rounding shadow ON the pencil would remain properly underneath. Thank you for the feathering tip! And I, also, would love you to remove the shadow from the spectacles…