Extractions and Custom Drop Shadows

BrenBoone · #1 04-18-2009, 12:15 PM

Extractions and Custom Drop Shadows

In this tutorial I’ll be showing you my own personal method I use for extracting objects and also how to apply realistic custom drop shadows using the warp tool in Photoshop CS3.

I photographed a piece of ribbon isolated on white paper. I prefer photographing my elements outside in natural light. Or I sometimes use an Ott-Lite and a light box I made out of a cardboard box and white Bristol board I bought at Hobby Lobby.

Here is the image I photographed. You can download it here and follow along with me!

For this tutorial I’m going to use the polygonal lasso selection tool. You could also use the magnetic lasso tool but I personally like to have a little bit more control. Also, I like to use the pen tool and then convert it to a selection in the paths palette but that takes a little more time. I guess it just depends on what I’m extracting what I tool I’ll use.

Before I do anything I’ll duplicate the layer and work off the copy. Right click on the original image and select duplicate layer.

I’ll use the original image later to help me create my custom drop shadow. I’ll also hide the original image’s layer just for good measure.

Now I’m going to select the polygonal lasso tool and select the ribbon. I like to zoom in very close (about 300% - 500%) so that I get all the nooks.

Once you’re done with your selection you should have “dancing ants” going around your image.

Next go to <Select + Inverse> this changes the selection to the background. Next press your delete key and the background should be gone and your ribbon should be all that’s left. You can press <Ctrl + D> to deselect the image.

Now I’m gonna soften the edges on the ribbon just a little bit to make it look a bit more realistic. This step can be done in CS3 and above. Hold down the Control button and click on the ribbon’s thumbnail image in the layer’s palette. This will select your image again. Go to <Select + Refine Edges> and see below what my settings are.

Then I will go to <Select + Inverse> then press delete.

Now I think I’m happy with way my ribbon looks.

Now I’m going to make my custom drop shadow.

Unhide the original image’s layer and look at the shadow.

I purposely took the picture so that the light source is the top right corner and the shadow falls to the bottom left. This is just my personal preference for drop shadow and for photographing my images. I like a 45 degree angle.

Open your drop shadow’s palette by double clicking on the ribbons layer and use these settings below. I chose the default black for the color.

Now I’m going to right click on the little triangle on the ribbon’s layer and select create layer. Now your drop shadow is on a separate layer than your ribbon and you can manipulate it.

On the shadow layer, make sure you have the move tool selected then press <Ctrl + T> to open the transform control box. Click on the warp tool.

Now move around your shadow so that it matches the original shadow. It may take more than one time and you might have to do it in more than one step but that’s ok. If you don’t like it just undo it and start over again till you like the way it looks.

Once I’m done and am happy with my shadow, I’m going to change the transparency to about 60-65 and make it a tad bit lighter.

And now I’m done! You can get rid of the bottom original image layer and save this as a psd if you want to keep the shadow separate from the image or you can merge them and save it as a png or you can save one image without the shadow and one with the shadow.

You can play with the hue saturation and make more ribbon colors. Just have fun with it!

I hope you enjoyed this tut and that it was easy to follow. Please post any questions you may have!

Bren