How to Make Amazing Realistic shadows in Photoshop

On this video Colin Smith from PhotoshopCAFE  takes a look at how you can add highly realistic shadows to composite images in Photoshop.

The first step is going to be removing your subject from the background. Now that we have the subject on a white background. From here on Smith explains each step (and there are a few methods – the drop shadow method seems to us a little bit more simple). Our aim will be to transform the basic drop shadow and turn it into a cast shadow which looks much more realistic in a real image.

Using the free-transform and the warp-tool to turn the drop shadow and make it look more like a cast shadow. However just transforming the shadow is not enough – you need to change the opacity but also change the way it looks by adding another layer and blending both of them with a gradient (there are quite a few steps here).

There are quite a few steps on this video and we didn’t go over all of them. If you do want to go over all of them and try it yourself,  you can check out the written guide for this video which you can find here.

You can find many more Photoshop video tutorials on LensVid’s Photoshop section. You can find more PhotoshopCAFE videos here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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