drop shadow question

[joscie]

Okay, so here I type again. I saw in a gallery post comments about using brown drop shadows. How many of you use brown? or what do you do for your dropshadows?

I use black at about 50% opacity and keep it pretty close.

How about you?

[shades of bliss]

I use black @ 75 % opacity. ( but mine suck :gah:)

[MissMint]

I usually color sample whatever the object is on and move the color slider down to a darker version if it's a light or odd color. If I'm lazy, I use black. Opacity depends on what it's on.

[mturnidge]

I usually color sample the whatever the object is one and move the color slider down to a darker version if it's a light or odd color. If I'm lazy, I use black. Opacity depends on what it's on.


That's what I do, especially on pastels/lighter colors. We suggested a brown shadow for that page because it was a brown and pink page. When you're adjusting the setting for your shadows in the layer styles dialog box, you can click the little black square and that custom color picker thingy will pop up so you can change it.

See the black square next to all the sliders? That's what you click to change the color (at least in PSE)...
http://peppermintcreative.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pic2.jpg

[MissPotts]

I do mine black but dont go all the way over and I use opacity all over the spectrum. I try to keep it about 70 and above for paper and will go lower if I feel the need for other objects. I like to watch my shadow when using opacity rather than look at the numbers.

[Mellykat]

I usually color sample the whatever the object is one and move the color slider down to a darker version if it's a light or odd color. If I'm lazy, I use black. Opacity depends on what it's on.
Yup. Same here.

[Keela]

I normally use black...unless the elements I am using that already have shadows on them are brown. ;) Sometimes my shadows really suck...sometimes I think they look great. Honestly, I don't care. LOL! I tend to do whatever I think looks good and let it go. :redface:

[MissPotts]

Shadows can be a pain. I have been working on geting mine down. I really want to take a drawing course so I can learn more about shadows. Maybe next semester.

[JamWest1007]

I actually LOVE playing with shadows...I think its some kind of sickness. :loco:

On every page I try to make my shadows look as natural as possible. For me, how happy I am with a page is often determined by how "REAL" it looks...the shadows make or break that for me.

Like MissMint and so many others, I color sample what I am layering on and generally use this color darkened to about 10 to 15% "brightness". Of course I don't generally use the drop shadow function. I usually make my shadow on its own layer and distort, blur and stretch it from there to get as natural a look as possible. Then I adjust the opacity to between 45 and 70%, depending on the colors I am working on. This is more time consuming since I am using PSE, but I tend be much happier with the result.

What can I say...I really am sick! lmao

[KirstieGai]

sometimes I play with mine but most of the time I use actions by Flergs and Traci Murphy

[ingridfasquelle]

I use the drop shadow function, usually black at 75% opacity and i play with distance and size so my shadows look as natural as possible... Not always easy and this part of designing is sometimes tima consuming... I think drop shadows can totally make or break a page, so i do my best effort on them ! ;)

[MissPotts]

I too spend alot of time shadowing. Its becoming an obsesiion. Cant wait till I can do it faster. Many times I leave them till the next day so I can be at my scrapping best!

[~Julie~]

I usually use dark brown or a little lighter for lighter papers and elements.

[AllieP]

sometimes I play with mine but most of the time I use actions by Flergs and Traci Murphy


Kirstie, what actions are you talking about?

[Missys3lilbugs]

I use a style that I got from one of Anna Aspen's curled edges a long time ago (it came with them)....it's much quicker and faster. I just change the #'s and move the shadows around.

With three kiddos and a hubby.... I try anything that makes scrapping faster.

[MissPotts]

I use a style that I got from one of Anna Aspen's curled edges a long time ago (it's came with them)....it's much quicker and faster. I just change the #'s and move the shadows around.

With three kiddos and a hubby.... I try anything that makes scrapping faster.


cheap and creative! sounds like a digiscrapper to me!

[KirstieGai]

Kirstie, what actions are you talking about?

Traci Murphy sells actions for popout, string, felt, etc and you load them into photoshop and it's a double click of the action on the element and voila shadow done. I think Flergs offered hers as a freebie some time ago or maybe they were with a kit.

[kc_happymom]

I tend to use charcoal grey for shadows. I duplicate what I'm shadowing and turn it to charcoal grey. Then I soften the edges anywhere between 2 to 4 and sometimes use transparency up to 10%. Then I put the grey image behind the original one and stretch the right and bottom until it looks like a shadow.

If the background is dark I use the darkest grey I can find and if it's really light I'll go with a lighter grey. I've never tried brown before.

Kathleen from Canada ::yipee::

[MissPotts]

I do a similar method to achieve my shadows.

[Regina]

Oh my gosh...and here I was thinking that all I have to do is hit "drop shadow" for layer styles! I checked out your pages and OMG I can see the difference! My stuff looks like it's floating above the paper and lit by a spotlight!

I certainly learned something tonight :-)

[AquaRuby]

I use Flergs drop shadow action too. I also like to play with certain parts of my pages too in order to make one section stand out more.

[audscraps]

That's what I do, especially on pastels/lighter colors. We suggested a brown shadow for that page because it was a brown and pink page. When you're adjusting the setting for your shadows in the layer styles dialog box, you can click the little black square and that custom color picker thingy will pop up so you can change it.

See the black square next to all the sliders? That's what you click to change the color (at least in PSE)...
http://peppermintcreative.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/pic2.jpg

were in pse is that? i have been trying to figure out how to play around with my shadows but cant figure out were i do it. i have pse6.

thanks meeeeeeeeegan. ;)

[mturnidge]

were in pse is that? i have been trying to figure out how to play around with my shadows but cant figure out were i do it. i have pse6.

thanks meeeeeeeeegan. ;)

hehe.... meeeeegan... I've got you all well-trained! lol2

Ok, Audra... once you apply your shadow style, look at the layer in the layers palette and you should see a little icon next to the layer's name... it looks like a little sun. Double click on that and the styles box should pop up! Let me know if that helps! :)

[audscraps]

hehe.... meeeeegan... I've got you all well-trained! lol2

Ok, Audra... once you apply your shadow style, look at the layer in the layers palette and you should see a little icon next to the layer's name... it looks like a little sun. Double click on that and the styles box should pop up! Let me know if that helps! :)

perfect! thank you!

and yes you do have us well trained! lol. i especially like adding the extra eeeeeeeee's when i spell your name. lol2