*Program Basic
PROGRAM BASIC: Realistic Shadows
By Jacqueline Sheppet
Mar 6, 2005, 13:49

By and © 2004 Jacqueline Sheppet

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PhotoImpact is my software of choice for many reasons – mostly because of its ease of use. One of the easiest things of all PhotoImpact can do is add realistic shadows to elements in your scrapbooking layouts. Here is how, using a scanned autumn leaf as an example.

This leaf looks realistic, but would benefit from some shadow behind it to give it a little more depth and realism. Before adding a realsitic shadow, it is important to make sure it is going to fall the correct way to give the sense of realism. If it is unclear on a layout which direction the light would be shining on the page, making sure your shadows are at least consistent. I decided the light was coming from the lower left of the leaf. This would mean the shadow would fall behind the top and right.

Right click on the object and select shadow [or press shift + s]. This opens a box with many different options. This is what the default looks like:

I changed the direction of the shadow by clicking the third box along. I also changed the x and y offsets to lower numbers. The higher the offsets, the further out from the page the object appears. Finally lowered the soft edge factor to about 6. There are no hard and fast rules here, experiment with what looks pleasing and importantly, what looks realistic. Once you are happy with your shadow effect, click the ‘ok' box. Here is my leaf with a shadow:

Here is my leaf with a different shadow. Can you see which box I selected to get this effect? [It is the 2 nd last one] I often use this shadow when I am editing my photos. I think it looks kind of interesting.

Finally, one of the best things in PhotoImpact is you can detach shadows and add other shadows to the same objects. Once a shadow is applied, you can again right click on the element and select Split Shadow . Now your shadow becomes an independent object free to move and you may add another shadow to the object as before.

I moved the shadow to the right a bit to show what it looks like.

Adding shadows in PhotoImpact could not be more simple!