How to achieve this style: Grad shadow

[Photo03]

Hi All,

I was wondering if you'll be able to help me and advise how I can achieve this style in photoshop. As I'm still trying to learn different grading and toning techniques.

I'm thinking of a drop shadow which is feathered and has a selective colour tint.

Any help would be grateful.

Thanks

[Doug Nelson]

Shooting from the hip, here, but it looks like a bog-standard drop shadow that has been blurred and lowered opacity. If you look at the thumbnails of the two images it gets a bit more obvious. In this case it looks more like they used a very soft brush rather than duping the original and filling with black.

Whichever way you choose, remember to put the shadow on it's own layer.

[Sabrina81]

Here's one way, in Photoshop (I'm assuming you have basic Photoshop skills) :

1. Select the subject (note "marching ants"). Easiest way is to select the white background and then invert that selection.

2. Open a blank layer and fill that selection with any color, doesn't matter what color. Reduce Fill to 0%. The fill will disappear (but will remain visible on the thumbnail in the layers panel)

3. Open the Layer Styles panel and choose Outer Glow. Choose gray or whatever color you want for the shadow. Set Spread to 0 and adjust Size to make the shadow larger or smaller. Adjust Opacity to make it darker or lighter. If you want to remove part of the shadow (such as around the head), put a layer mask on that layer and paint with black using a large, soft brush.

glow.jpg

[Sabrina81]

You're welcome.