Tutorial: Natural looking Shadows on a Calendar Page

If you're like me, the standard shadows in photoshop just don't cut it, they look stock, and fake.  With more and more of today's design using organic and naturla looking elements like paper and objects, they should have shadows to match, and perfectly symetricla shadows are anything but natural.

The effect I'm going for is a curling paper and a nice naturla shadow below.

To follow along you should have a working knowledge of photoshop some techniques we'll be using are:

  • Quickmasking
  • Smart Objects
  • Blending Modes
  • Blending Options

Download Sample Start File

Step 1

Step 1

Start with a blank document, and give yourself some extra room, expand the canvas size if you need (image / cavas size).  I converted the file above into a Smart Object so it's non-destructive as we shape it.  So anyway, here is the file, make your subject look similar.

Step 2

Warp Tool

Nex

 


Add to Technorati Favorites Tweet This!