Adding shadows to pictures

from WinCustomize Forums
I've been trying to come up with easy ways to add quality shadows to pictures (on a permanent basis) with varying degrees of success.

I found a program called Pic2Mail that I think does a real good job, but unfortunately, it re-sizes the images. (Its primary function is to prepare images for email.)

I have Photoshop LE 5.0 and have been playing with the Eye Candy 4000 demo filter, and have had decent success with it, but I'm still not totally satisfied.

Can anyone recommend some good EC4000 settings, or perhaps another filter and/or utility? This is mostly for fun (and for a web image here and there), so I'm not really looking to spend any money (or at least not much).

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Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I am totally not good with images and stuffs but heres what i can say; I don't have EC4000 so i don't have any recommendations but i have Photonshop 7 (well used to i erased it cuz of my harddisk size...) if your computer is good enough to run this program (it takes soo much to actually start it..) try it.. it has waymore fuctions then 5.0 LE Photoshop. I had both versions. Either download the new photoshop (Kazaa) or buy it (don't recommend cuz its usually expensive).

Good luck with your images,
WasupBoy
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
that Kaaza thing wasn´t very clever (actually even dumber than my occasional rants).
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Photoshop is very good at drop shadows, you don't need third party filters to get a good effect. Just right click on the layer you want to add a shadow to, and click "effects". A shadow will automatically be added to your layer, and then it's just a matter of tweaking it until you get the desired effect. Play with the opacity and colours of the shadow, and you will be surprised at the great results you can get.
You can also paint your own shadows with the airbrush too, just select the area you want to add the shadow to, then invert the selection, and then you can airbrush around the selection using a low flow rate.(if you make it on a new layer, you can always remove it if you don't like it, and you can also play with the layer blending settings.) I often use this method for adding shadows to spheres so that I can get just the right shape.
The main point is that you should try to master Photoshop without resorting to third party stuff, it's ultimately more satisfying.
Good luck.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I use the built in drop shadow filter in PSP, and like BoXXi is saying, just tweak the color (I generally use a very dark gray), the opacity, and the blur.

Wasupboy.....careful, we don't play the Kazaa/warez game here.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Shadows is the easiest thing in the world to do.
No need no stickin' program or filter.

1- Duplicate your object and place behind original
2- Fill with black
3- Gausian blur (1 to 1.5)
4- Change opacity to 30%
5- Nudge a few pixels to the right and down

Voila. Takes about 15 seconds.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
And to add to the Kazaa comments, Kazaa is a huge piece of crap. And spyware too.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yeah, I have no desire to steal a new version of Photoshop (or whatever). PS LE is plenty of a graphics program for my modest needs anyway.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll play tomorrow and get back to you.

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