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1.To start off,
you'll need something to add a dropshadow to. This can be text, a
logo, clipart... whatever. It will need to be on it's own separate layer,
whatever it is. Press "D" on your keyboard to reset the colors to their
default values (we're going to be using black).
2.If you're
putting your dropshadow on text, select the Type Tool now
and type your text.
Make a new layer and drag it underneath the layer that contains your
text/object... you can name this layer Shadow. Hold down CTRL on your
keyboard and click on the text/object layer, and it should load a selection
around it.
3.Now, go to
Select-> Feather and choose a number and press OK. The higher the number,
the more "soft" and spread out your dropshadow will be. In the example, a
setting of 5 was used. Make sure that the Shadow layer is selected and go to
Edit-> Fill-> Foreground Color, to fill the feathered selection with black.
4.Now, depending
on the direction your "light source" is coming from (top left, bottom right,
etc) you need to move the Shadow layer several pixels up/down and several
pixels right/left. In the example, we moved 5 down and 5 right. You can
sometimes create the illusion that the object is high above the background
by using much higher numbers... and note that the numbers do not have to be
identical (i.e. could be 4 and 7, etc).
5.You've probably now noticed
that the shadow looks a bit unrealistically dark. To fix this, adjust the
opacity of the Shadow layer - in the example, the opacity has been brought
down to about 60%.
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