If anyone can please help me make a drop shadow for this sofa so it won't look like it's floating on a white background. I tried to do it w/the drop shadow for the layer properties but it didn't work well...not sure what I'm doing wrong. Thanks so much in advance for any help and advice you all can give.
Tracy

Please see my attachment, I hope that's kind of what you are looking for. Since I learned PS on the limited edition that came with my camera, I had to learn drop shadowing the hard way!

Here are the steps I did in editing your image; obviously you can play with the pixel/percentage amounts given.

increased size to 720 pixels wide for a better working image, and cleared the background using the paintbucket tool

select sofa layer icon and right click to select image transparency

click on "select, modify, expand" by 8 pixels

click on "select, feather" by 10 pixels

click on rectangle marquee tool icon to get curser in correct mode

drag selection straight down so that the bottom is exactly even with the bottom of the sofa legs.

create new layer (will become your shadow layer)

fill selection with black using paint bucket

decrease opacity of shadow layer to 65%

select rectangular marquee tool and set feathering to 5 pixels

make a rectangular selection that spans the width of the image, the top should be exactly even to the bottom of the sofa legs, and the bottom should extend well beyond the bottom of the shadow.

hit delete.

using a 100 pixel fuzzy round brush, erase the parts of the shadow that extend beyond the sides of the sofa- as desired.

Flatten and your done!

Best wishes,

Kelly

Written by Mike Gustafson

Short version:

Open your image

Using your path select tool (line, not lasso) select a line around the object that you would like the shadow to fall from. Make sure that you select every part of the object, with none of the background selected.

Now, with the object selected, cut and paste it into a new layer (CTRL+X, CTRL+V). Position the object where it appeared in the original image. Duplicate the layer (right-click on the layer in the "layers" panel, then select "duplicate layer". Drag the copy below "Layer 1" in the "layers" panel...this will be your shadow layer.

With your newest layer selected and the visibility of the object (Layer 1) off, open your brightness/contrast panel (Image, Adjust, Brightness/Contrast...) and slide both to zero, making the image black.

Click OK, and then apply a Gaussian blur (Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur...). You want the edges to be soft, without losing the shape of the original image. I turned off the visibility of the Background layer so I could see the blur better.

Turn on the visibility of the topmost layer, move the shadow layer around a little, and you'll notice that you now have a drop shadow.

Now you have the ability to distort the shadow (Edit, Transform, Distort) in order to add perspective to your image. Play with the shadow's opacity as you wish.


For the PDF version with images click here (http://www.photoshoptoday.com/Tutorials2002/Nov/PSBetterSpotS/PSbetterdropShadow.pdf)

~T

Followed the above tut with a few changes:

Lassoed couch onto it's own layer - renamed shadow layer

Duplicated Layer - renamed couch (this should be the top layer)

Selected Shadow layer (Image, Adjust, Brightness/Contrast...) and slide both to -100, making the image black

Click OK, and then applied a Gaussian blur (Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur...). Made the edges soft, without losing the shape of the original image. Turned off the visibility of the Background layer so you can see the blur better.

Turn on the visibility of the topmost layer

Used (Edit, Transform, Distort) in order to add perspective to the image and then lowered the opacity.

used Photopaint 11 on this. I made a mask of the couch and then created a new object from the couch. Selected the Drop Shadow tool and chose a Hard Perspective Right shadow to start. I then moved the shadow so it was center to the couch and then "squashed" it to get a better shape to the shadow and altered the level of shadow transparency to 30 and a gaussian blur on the shadow feather edge.