{"id":27273,"date":"2018-11-06T19:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T03:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=27273"},"modified":"2018-11-08T07:37:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T15:37:51","slug":"tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2018\/11\/tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-80\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaving Shadows<\/strong><\/p>\n

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As you’ve already figured out if you read my tutorials regularly, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I like things to look a certain way, and will try whatever it takes to get the effect I want. Shadows are something I don’t like to compromise on, and I often create custom shadow layers for my layouts. But I’m also a bit of a procrastinator and leave things until the 11th hour… and then I run with drop shadow styles, either ones I’ve loaded into my Styles menu<\/strong> or the ones the designer has added to the template I’m using. These Styles<\/strong> are limited in what can be tweaked, and when I’m building a cluster, sometimes the shadows just look wrong because the style isn’t more adjustable. In that case, if I’m in a real hurry, I look the other way, but I’m not happy about it. So when I discovered a Work Smart Not Hard<\/strong> method of customizing drop shadow styles,\u00a0 I was all over it! I was absolutely giddy!! It IS possible to erase JUST THE SHADOWS quickly and easily, to give that realism to my clusters!<\/p>\n

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There are a number of designers who have collections of drop shadow styles for sale. They make short work of shadowing a variety of elements with a single click. But they have limitations in the adjustments you can make to them. At least that’s what I always thought…<\/p>\n

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The image below shows the software’s adjustment menu for Styles<\/strong>. You can open this menu by double-clicking on the Style<\/strong> icon (the little\u00a0fx<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>icon on the right hand side of the layer in the Layers Panel<\/strong>). Whatever settings you choose, Elements<\/strong> applies across the board.<\/p>\n

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Now, if I try to erase any part of the shadow on this layer, I run the risk of erasing the flower too. But with the shadow style left intact as a style, when I erase part of the shadow, I also erase the part of the flower that casts the shadow. And it looks very odd.<\/p>\n

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If I Simplify<\/strong> the layer (as I remind you constantly to do with your special effects), Erasing<\/strong> will erase everything equally;\u00a0who has time for zooming in, using a tiny Erase<\/strong> brush and going pixel by pixel to erase just the shadow? I don’t.<\/p>\n

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See what I mean?<\/p>\n

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Here’s where the fun starts. If I Select<\/strong> the flower by CTRL\/CMD>clicking<\/strong> on the image thumbnail in the Layers Panel<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

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and THEN\u00a0<\/em>Simplify…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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I can Invert<\/strong> the selection at any point either before or after Simplifying<\/strong> and it works just the same. To Invert<\/strong>, click on Select>Inverse<\/strong> or CTRL\/CMD>Shift>I<\/strong> which moves the marching ants from the edges of the image to the edge of the document and Selects<\/strong> everrything in between – the shadow.<\/p>\n

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Now I can Erase<\/strong> just the shadow!! At this step I can use the Eraser<\/strong> brush at 100%<\/strong> opacity to completely remove the shadow, or I can decrease the brush Opacity<\/strong> to whatever I want to just to lighten the shadow in that area. Or I can partially erase, partially lighten. It’s a bonanza of options!<\/p>\n

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You may never have a reason to use this trick, but I’m glad I shared it with you.<\/p>\n

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

Shaving Shadows As you’ve already figured out if you read my tutorials regularly, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I like things to look a certain way, and will try whatever it takes to get the effect I want. Shadows are something I don’t like to compromise on, and I often create custom shadow layers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[229,284,92,62],"tags":[373],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 15:47:54","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\/27273"}],"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=27273"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27295,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27273\/revisions\/27295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}