{"id":17682,"date":"2017-01-17T13:00:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T21:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=17682"},"modified":"2017-01-16T20:43:46","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T04:43:46","slug":"tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2017\/01\/tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes! You CAN Warp Shadows in PSE!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photoshop Elements is a great program for most applications the average digi-scrapper wants to accomplish, but it does have limitations. One of these is that shadows aren’t on their own layer. That means getting your photos or other objects to look like they’re lifting off the page isn’t possible. Or is it…….? Actually, there are a couple of ways to move your drop shadows onto a separate layer and the one I’m going to show you today is the one I find to be the easiest.<\/p>\n

I wanted to have a photo lift at one corner within my layout for the Mix It Up challenge<\/strong><\/a> this month. I chose a template created by Krisztina<\/strong> of Tinci Designs<\/a><\/strong>, found in her Autumn Stories V.2<\/strong><\/a> collection. Krisztina’s templates come pre-shadowed, which makes them especially awesome for beginners.<\/p>\n

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To start the process of making this photo spot look like it’s lifting, first I had to move the shadow onto its own layer. To do that, double-click on the little\u00a0fx<\/strong><\/em> icon as shown below. That opens the Layer Style<\/strong> menu for that layer.<\/p>\n

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It looks like this. By moving the Distance<\/strong> slider to the right, the shadow is offset – it moves away from the item.<\/p>\n

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To make the process easier I temporarily changed the angle on the shadow to 180\u00b0, which moved the shadow off to the right of the photo spot. (This step might not be necessary, depending on the size of your item and its location on the page. This photo spot is in the lower left corner, so I was a little restricted in what I could do with it.) You’ll see that I also set the distance<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a01000 pixels<\/strong>. This gives me some space between the shadow and the photo spot, which is essential to make this technique work. Once I’m done moving the shadow to its own layer I’ll move it back into position at the same angle as the other photo spots.<\/p>\n

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Now that I’ve set the distance, it’s time to Simplify<\/strong> the layer. VITAL STEP!!<\/span> Right click<\/strong> on the layer in the Layers<\/strong> panel and select Simplify Layer<\/strong>. That effectively eliminates the\u00a0fx<\/strong><\/em> icon so you can manipulate the visible layer on your layout.<\/p>\n

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Select the Rectangle Marquee<\/strong> tool then click and drag<\/strong> a rectangle around the shadow portion of your image as shown.<\/p>\n

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Now I’m\u00a0going to Cut<\/strong> that shadow away from the photo spot. Edit>Cut<\/strong> or CTRL\/CMD+X<\/strong> will do it.<\/p>\n

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Now Edit>Paste<\/strong> (CTRL\/CMD+V<\/strong>) the shadow back onto the layout… and look! It’s on its own layer!<\/p>\n

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Elements will have put the shadow layer ABOVE the item, so move it down so it’s underneath where it belongs. You can click and drag<\/strong> the layer down or CTRL\/CMD+[<\/strong> will do it for you. Now you can shift the shadow back to its correct angle under the photo\/item.<\/p>\n

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Now we’re getting into the really fun part! Select Image>Transform>Skew<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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I grabbed the lower left handle<\/strong> (the little box at the corner) and pulled it to the left. See how the bounding box looks wonky? That’s the Skew<\/strong> in action. Then I clicked OK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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There’s another way of changing the shape of an item. Image>Transform>Distort<\/strong> give a little more variety to how the shape can be altered.<\/p>\n

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Looking at the new shadow, it looks like the photo is resting on something underneath it and it’s too umm… ordinary. So the next step is to nudge the edges of the shadow a little so it’s closer to the photo in some areas. The Smudge<\/strong> tool is the way to make that happen. It looks like a finger.<\/p>\n

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Using a fairly big setting, click and drag <\/strong>the Smudge<\/strong> tool along the edge of the shadow, positioning the tool’s cursor something like shown below. Don’t take it all the way to the very end of the shadow though, because then it’ll have a tail and it’s not going to make you happy.<\/p>\n

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The image below shows what happens when you get carried away. It’s very bizarre looking and NOT what I want at all. Rather than try to correct it, I undid (CTRL\/CMD+Z<\/strong>) back to where I was still liking the look, and then continued.<\/p>\n

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Now that’s more like it!<\/p>\n

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And for that final touch of realism I hit the Image>Transform>Distort<\/strong> again and pushed the corner of the PHOTO (see that the photo layer is the active one) in just a tiny bit. You can see the final result<\/strong><\/a> in the gallery. The effect is subtle but it’s there.<\/p>\n

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Think about how you could apply this new skill to a paper item you’ve stapled to your layout. You can use the Smudge<\/strong> tool to bring the shadow in really close to the edge of the paper where the staple is for a much more realistic look. It also lets you make your photo\u00a0look like\u00a0it’s cupped a little and the centre of the photo is closest to the paper. This technique can be used to adjust shadows for a lot of things other than paper too. Flowers, butterflies, string, ribbon, the sky’s the limit! Give it a shot and let me know how you like it!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes! You CAN Warp Shadows in PSE! Photoshop Elements is a great program for most applications the average digi-scrapper wants to accomplish, but it does have limitations. One of these is that shadows aren’t on their own layer. That means getting your photos or other objects to look like they’re lifting off the page isn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[92,62],"tags":[373],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 10:38:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17682"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17703,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17682\/revisions\/17703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}