is it possible to add a full body shadow?

[justride]

Hi,

I have a stock photo of a full body person on a transparent bg, I would like to take the full body and make a shadow but make the shadow on the floor of the photo, is it possible to do this kind of shadow in photoshop? I dont want a drop shadow, I guess what I need is to rotate the drop shadow onto the floor, but im not sure adobe can do this since that would require 3d manupiulation. thanks

 

[jimmythegeek]

Photoshop can handle it no problem. Make a copy of the body layer, adjust the levels to make it black, then transform the level using skewing and perspective. For instance, leave the lower portion (by the feet) alone, but drag the top corners down to the floor. You can resize, and manipulate it to look like the light source is coming from almost any direction. Lastly, you can turn the opacity on the layer down to get the right shadow look you want.

Jim Lunde
We all agree your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?

 

[pixl8r]

Only one thing I would do differently from what Jim suggests. Right click on the layer thumbnail of your subject layer (in the layers pallette) and choose "Select Layer Transparency". Then create a new layer(under your subject) and fill the selection with black. This will save you the trouble of messing with the levels.

Proceed from there exactly as Jim outlines.

Hope it helps.

Wow JT that almost looked like you knew what you were doing!

 

[mscallisto]

Yes there are many ways...the two above are good examples.

Here is an example you can see and a google search on "photoshop shadows" produces many examples for all level phoroshop users.

http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/cast shadow/cast shadow.htm

 

[pixl8r]

Back in the old days you had to do all of your shadows this way. There was no such thing as a layer effect.

Wow JT that almost looked like you knew what you were doing!