Drop Shadow Made Easier in Photoshop Drop shadow is an incredibly useful tool. When you first get into web design it is your best friend. You use it in all of your titles, logos, backgrounds, side bars, and some bolded text. Every chance you get, you’re in Photoshop creating a .PNG image with a drop shadow added in. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s an addiction that’s hard to resist, especially when it transforms your image from flat and dull to popping and beautiful. At the risk of crushing creativity, the following is a discussion on drop shadows. You’ll learn how to make a drop shadow and what features have been added for your drop shadow convenience.
Traditional Way The traditional way of adding a drop shadow was adding an extra, fatter black line on the bottom and right of an image or piece of text. The effect is to make it look as if the object is coming off the page. This is easily accomplished with text by sending a layer of black text (with the same words, font size and settings as the main text) directly behind your existing text. Move the text a pixel or two to the right and down. Voilà, you have a drop shadow for the text. You can do the same with any object you create as well.
Photoshop’s Way The process is even easier in Photoshop. They have a “Drop shadow” button in the effects toolbar that will do it for you. The harsh black duplicates accomplish a 3-D effect, but they come off a bit strong, especially with bigger objects. Making them pop is great, but they shouldn’t become a distraction.
Photoshop’s figured that problem out and have added a few appealing features. You can now change the color of your shadow. Instead of pulling a strong black, you pull a navy, forest green, or other color that suites your fancy. The shadow won’t turn the intense color you choose; it will merely lighten up your shadow. You can now also change the distance of your shadow, the angle, the opacity, and the size of the shadow. These features alone can intensify your customization. In regards to the shadow’s size, the closer you bring your picas to 0p0, the sharper your shadow. The more you increase it, the wider it gets (note that it gets pretty unusable on normal sized items after about 0p7 or 0p8). Distance works well for a while too. The more you increase the picas, the farther away it gets. The more you decrease them, the closer it comes. Most drop shadows do well at about 0p2-0p6. Most shadow sizes look great at 0p1-0p4 sizes, although they come out a little darker at those sizes. That’s why they’ve given you the opacity features. Opacity allows you to minutely adjust how see through your shadow is. Better explained, it lightens your shadow the smaller the percentage. A full 100% shadow will give you the darkest look. Drop shadow addicts have all the tools they need in Photoshop and similar programs. Use the art with dignity and respect. You can use it too much. Use everything in moderation, and you’ll come out with a great design. Love the shadows, and use them right. Alphagraphics is the place to go for web design in Salt Lake. They have the capabilities to help you with any of your web design needs in Salt Lake. Photo Credit: youngdesign, jm3 on Flickr