What are your best practices for DROP SHADOWS?

[Stacey Jewell Stahl]

Since I've been on this board (less than a week) I've learned two things:

1. Save, save, save
and
2. Use drop shadows on everything

My problem is my drop shadows don't add dimension to the page, so I am interested in your best practices regarding color, blur, size, etc.

THANKS!
Jewel

[elizabethlmccoy]

fantastic question...i've also wondered what the proper way to use drop shadows....what program are you using??? I use Eyecandy 3000 for my dropshadows...it really works nicely and allows you to really customize the look, color, direction, thickness etc. I use it in PSE and am just learning PS7 which it's layer styles are really great but haven't mastered them so I'm sticking with eye candy for the time being.

One thing i've learned is the bigger the drop shadow the further off the paper the object is.

The other thing i've done to get more comfortable is to notice layouts that have been scanned or in magazines these usually are paper layouts and they have the natural shadows and this helps me see how to do mine.

Hope this helps.

[Emma]

sounds like you're using PSP. I'm not crazy about the shadows in there, I often feel they "ruin" my layouts. I usually create the larger ones on their own layer and further customize using the Gaussian Blur, layer opacity slider, etc.

I also like EyeCandy for shadows, but I try to teach only what's in PSP. But if you like plugin filters, that's a good one for more than just shadows.

In PSE, I made a bunch of shadow layer styles in PS, then saved as a style and opened in PSE so I have more options without using the filter. I included a set of shadows in the DSU 261 class to make things more realistic and give more shadow options.

[Stacey Jewell Stahl]

what program are you using??? I use PSP8 and don't have Eyecandy. Sounds like I know what my birthday present is going to be! :D

Jewel

[valeri]

I also use psp 8.1. I use psp drop shadows for small shadows like a mat or something like that. It works fine. The only time I find it necessary to use Eye Candy is for a perspective shadow, although they can be done in PSP, its just more work.