Creating A Shadow Cast By Sunlight

To show the creation of a shadow cast by sunlight a cut out of the chauffeur from the previous example will be used, Fig 2.1.  

Fig 2.1  Cut out of the Chauffeur

1.          Duplicate the layer on which the subject is cut out.

2.          Select the subject in the lower layer by Ctrl clicking on it.

3.          Fill the selection with black - the selection filled with black will not be seen unless the upper layer is hidden.

4.          Deselect the selection (Ctrl + D)

5.          The shadow is created by transforming the selection filled with black in Step 3, (Edit > Transform > Distort). The image will be surrounded by a bounding box with ‘handles’, Fig 2.2. NB The bounding box in Photoshop^® 7 is somewhat larger and more rectangular than that in Photoshop^® 6.

6.          Click and hold on the top middle handle of the bounding box (shown starred in Fig 2.2) - no other handle will do and drag it down to either the right or the left of the cut out depending on the direction of the lighting in the background image. The shape will look like a shadow and will be in a perfect parallelogram; it will appear to be cast by the parallel rays of sunlight, Fig 2.3. The shadow formed may be slightly displaced from the subject – this is normal and may be rectified by moving bounding box by placing the cursor inside it and dragging.

Fig 2.2  Bounding Box and Handles - Photoshop^® 7  

Fig 2.3  Creation of a Shadow of the Cut Out

7.          Apply the transformation by pressing the Enter key.

8.          Blur the shadow as required to make it look natural (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur)

9.          Change the Blending Mode of the Shadow Layer from Normal to Multiply although, as mentioned previously, Normal mode will achieve the same effect in most cases. This will make the shadow adopt the texture and colour of the area of the background image on which it is placed, although this will not be apparent until after the next step.

10.      Reduce the opacity of the shadow layer by dragging the opacity slider in the Layers Palette to make the shadow look natural, Fig 2.4. .....................................