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Adding a Dropped Shadow using Adobe Photoshop 
Are you bored with plain pictures or standard borders? This tutorial shows you how to add a quality dropped shadow to an image using Adobe Photoshop (see image to the left). This tutorial is designed to be used on a PC but if you are working on a Mac simply use the apple/command key instead of the control key. |
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Step 1: Open up your Adobe Photoshop programme, then locate and open the image file you wish to add a shadow to. You will need to have your Layers palette open, if you cannot see it go to Window and click on the layers to open it up. |
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Step 2: We need to make this image a Layer, to do this double click on the Background Layer to bring up the New Layer dialogue box. Name the layer at this point. I have named it 'main pic'. Click OK.
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Step 3: Next we need to increase the Canvas Size, this will give us space around the image without enlarging the main picture. Go to the Image Menu and click Canvas Size.The Canvas Size dialogue box will open. |
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Step 4: Ensure you have clicked on the centre box in the Anchor Field, this ensures that there will be even space all around the image. |
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Step 5: Add 2cm to the width and height values. This will give us a 1cm border all around our picture. |
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Step 6: We need to make this image a Layer, to do this double click on the New Layer icon to insert blank layer into your document. |
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Step 7: Drag this new layer below your Image Layer so it is now the new background. This layer is transparent at the moment. Hit control+Backspace on your keyboard to fill this new layer with white, or from the Edit menu, click Fill then choose to USE white from the drop down menu. |
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Step 8: Ensure the Preserve Transparency box is unticked. This ensures the entire layer will be filled with white. |
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Step 9: If you have a later version of Photoshop, click on the Effects Button in the layers palette. If you are using a version earleier than version 4, go to step 11 |
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Step 10: Click on the Drop Shadow radio button, then adjust the Distance. Spread and Size to your taste. Adjusting the Opacity will determine how dark or light your shadow will be. The Angle feature will determine where the shadow will fall, for example in this case the light will come from the top left so the shadow will appear bottom right. That's it, you're almost finished, go to Step 19 to complete the tutorial. |
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Step 11:Right click on the main pic, click Duplicate Layer in the drop down menu. This will give you a copy of your image layer. |
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Step 12: Ensure the default colours are set in the Tools Palette. If they aren't as shown press D on your keyboard |
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Step 13: Click on the main pic layer, then go to the Edit Menu, drop down to the Fill... command. |
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Step 14: Still in the main pic layer, go to the Filter Menu then to Blur>Gaussian Blur, the Gaussian Blur dialogue box will appear. |
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Step 15: Click on the Minus Button so you can see the preview and effect. Moving the Radius Slider will determine how much blur you want to apply, the greater the number, the softer the effect. |
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Step 16: click the Move Tool in the Tools Palette |
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Step 17: You can now position the shadow where required. Simply Click and Drag into position. |
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Step 18: In the Opacity field in the Layers Palette adjust the opacity to the density you prefer, in this instance I have chosen an opacity of 40%. Thats it, you have created a drop shadow effect. |
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Step 19: Go to the File Menu, click Save As, give your image a sensible name and ensure the Layers check box is ticked. This will preserve your layered file for future editing, and save it as a Photoshop [*.PSD,*.PDD] in the Format drop down menu. |
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Step 20: Finally, save your image as a Jpeg which will be a much smaller file, and ready to use in your project. |
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