Separating drop shadow effect on different layer?

[buso23]

I have an image of playing cards stacked on top of each other and want to add some dimension to it by applying some drop shadow in between them but I want the drop shadow effect on a separate layer so as to easily control its effect on this image of playing cards. I have all the cards on separate layers and would like to erase the drop shadow where it's not needed. I included some samples as attachments to see what I'm talking about.

Can this be done ? What's the best way to do it ? Any tutorials on adding drop shadows to images ?


I included some samples as attachments to see what I'm talking about. Also,
I've uploaded the PSD file of the stacked cards here for those of you that would want to play with it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2396983/Cards.psd

Thanks.

[Nasturtium]

Have you tried double clicking on the layer until you get to layer style

and then checking 'layer mask hides effect'?

Then of course you need to create a mask that hides the part of the drop shadow that you don't want.

HTH

[oneredpanther]

If I wanted the finest control over each shadow, I would make a custom drop shadow for each card by doing the following for each card layer:

1. Make a new empty layer below the card.
2. Ctrl-click the card layer above to select its outline.
3. Fill the selection with black on the empty layer.
4. Guassian blur the black fill to a fuzziness of your choice and reduce its opacity to taste.

Do the same for each card, so that you have the following:

* Playing card
* Drop Shadow layer
* Playing card
* Drop Shadow layer
* Playing card
* Drop Shadow layer
* Playing card
* Drop Shadow layer

Now you can edit the shadow to your hearts content. I wouldn't bother with the built-in Layer Effects for this sort of work.

Panth

[Der_W]

Right click on the layer styles ("Drop Shadow") in the palette and choose "Create layers". That should give you the drop shadow and every other layer style as separated layers that can be modified in any way.

Adding drop shadows can be as simple as this, it might involve masking the real shadow and composing it or even painting a new shadow (my preferred method), it's entirely up to the image/background you're working with :-).

[oneredpanther]

Damn. You learn something every day! Never knew you could do that.

[buso23]

Ok, thanks guys, I'll give it a try and see what I come up with.

[unimatrix001]

You can add a drop shadow to each layer using the layer effects option. Set your options the way you want them, spread, size, and distance. click ok. in the layers pallet right click on the effects layer and choose create layer. It will create a layer from the drop shadow and you can edit that layer however you need to for your effects.

[buso23]

Here's what I ended up with. How do you like it ? Any suggestions/advice ? Thanks again for your help. Regards, Ljupco

[oneredpanther]

There's something about it that looks extremely realistic. The shadows have that 3DSMax quality about them. Nice work.

[Boneappetit]

Originally Posted by buso23

Here's what I ended up with. How do you like it ? Any suggestions/advice ? Thanks again for your help. Regards, Ljupco

Looks pretty good. What method did u use?

[Boneappetit]

Originally Posted by buso23

I included some samples as attachments to see what I'm talking about. Also,
I've uploaded the PSD file of the stacked cards here for those of you that would want to play with it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2396983/Cards.psd

Thanks.

PSD file link is not working.

[ashphotoart]

Read steve caplin book "How to cheat in photoshop" .
in this book he explained for the same.

[buso23]

Originally Posted by Boneappetit

PSD file link is not working.

It's not working cause I deleted it. If you want to practice on it, let me know, I'll send it to you. I have created custom shadows for each of the cards and then masked what I didn't want to show up and that's it.

Regards, Ljupco