How To Make Realistic Shadows in Photoshop

Learn this Super-Simple way to create highly-realistic shadows in Photoshop!

By having realistic natural shadows in your composite, your subject will fit better within the scene make the entire image more cohesive.

Three of the most difficult things to get right when creating shadows are color, perspective, and shape. In this video, I'm going to show how to get all these right to create realistic shadows in Photoshop!

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📘 INDEX - How To Make Realistic Shadows in Photoshop
00:45 - How others create a shadow
01:50 - The Problem with common techniques
03:28 - Shadow color
04:50 - Match Shadow Perspective
05:45 - Use Puppet Warp to distort the shadow
07:16 - Blur the Shadow
07:40 - Add a contact shadow
09:15 -  Use the Gradient Tool to fade the shadow.  

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CREDITS

● Photoshop video tutorials by Jesus Ramirez

#PhotoshopTutorial #Photoshop #PTCvids

[Torrboar]

Working as a professional designer for 10 years, you videos are still super inspiring and helpful every single time!

[jb]

I'm new to Photoshop & I really appreciate your videos. I also appreciate the people who take the time to comment. I think we can all learn a lot from each other. Thanks to you and everybody else for inspiring me & holding my hand as my skills grow.

[dunnymonster]

Only thing I would add is to make the shadow a smart object first, then apply a bit more Gaussian blur. Then in the layer mask use the gradient to make the blur reduce as it gets closer to the subjects feet so it's gradually more blurry as the shadow falls away. 😉

[jennhoff]

I've been using Photoshop professionally for 15 years, and I never knew you could make your own pins on puppet warp! Holy smokes, this is going to come in handy all the time! Thank you!

[PhaedrusD]

I like the tip on using Puppet Warp to fix the alignment issues!

[wesleynaleagaca]

Mr. Ramirez...Best Ps channel on youtube. Learned a lot with you. Thank you very much.

[shevaandelpitiya]

I don't know what i'd do without your help!!!

[johngrey]

I learned a bunch of useful hotkeys. Thanks!

[a-muse]

I learned a few new tricks in watching this video, thank you!

[syedamunawarfatima]

Amazing...Learnt many things today: Layer mask, Blur filter, Puppet wrap and contact shadow...Thank you

[supergolfdude]

This is great, Jesús! I never think of the puppet warp, but I will certainly use this now.

[BillFurlong]

This helped with some shadows I had to add to a composite. Thanks so much!

[fernandofaixa]

Dude, when it's you, I like before I watch it. And I am never wrong.

[balamina]

Thank you so much Jesus! As always informative and very useful! God bless and good luck man!

[KrunoslavStifter]

Thanks for the tutorial, but I would like to see shadow that is useful for composting. Multiple shadows interacting with each other from various objects, displacement of shadows as it goes over various objects, and going from floor to the wall etc. We need more advance realistic usage.

[flaviasignori]

You're such a great teacher! This tutorial is really helpful and I'll be able to make better shadows for my food pics. Thank you and keep up with the good work!

[tubeondahriver]

You're so informed, and I'd be thrilled if you slowed down and showed us step by step what you're actually selecting. I think to illustrate the typical guidance of tutorials you already had selections for layers, and I personally could not figure out where things were on the tools navigation ... I'm already lost, 2:30 in....

[brianmoriarty]

i APPRECIATE HOW THOROUGH AND EASY TO FOLLOW YOUR TUTORIALS ARE. THANK YOU.

[sabuck]

Thanks! I really enjoy your no nonsense instructional videos! Very helpful!

[angelpetrov]

The best shadows-methods I've ever seen. Bravo Jesus