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Last Updated:
Jan 20th, 2007 - 12:55:03 |
This tutorial will show you how to add shadows to transparent and semi-transparent items in Photoshop, while still maintaining the transparency and color of items.
I’ve started with a paper, photo and frame placed in Photoshop. The transparent frame will be referred to as Frame Layer in this tutorial.
The Frame Layer is selected in the Layers palette. Using the magic wand tool, select the area inside the frame, then holding the shift key to add to selection, select the area outside the frame (red area in visual).
Select > Inverse, or Ctrl + Shift + I (Cmd + Shift + I Mac) so the frame is selected.
Zoom in to check the selection is right on the edge, if not Select > Modify > Contract by 1 or 2 pixels if needed.
While selection is still active, create a new layer, using the page icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
At the bottom of the tool menu, the foreground color as a default is set to black. If not, hitting key D will set it to black.
To fill selection with white Ctrl + Backspace (Cmd + Backspace Mac).
Double click Layer 1 (White shape) or hit Ctrl +1 (Cmd + 1 Mac), then add a Drop shadow to your preferences.
In the Layers palette, change Layer 1 (white shape) to Darken, which will hold the shadow, but hide the white shape. Alt + Shift + K (Option + Shift + K Mac)
A close-up of the final shadow.
To link the layers, select all three layers and select the link icon at the bottom of the layers palette. This will keep them together if moving items around the page, scaling or rotating, etc. Hitting the icon again will unlink the items if needed.
The final result.
Thank You to Carrie Stephens for allowing the use of her Good Times kit for this tutorial.
© Copyright 2003-2005 by Scrapbook-Bytes; & original creator/s of tutorials/articles
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