(upbeat music)
- Welcome to another lesson.
This is Ahmesh again.
I hope you're having a great time delving
into the depths of compositing.
Speaking of compositing,
one of the most important aspects or elements
in compositing is shadows.
Without shadows, your compositing just wouldn't look
that convincing or convincing at all.
Let's think of it like this.
Let's say you have a subject standing on the ground,
and just over the subject, there was a spotlight,
but if you look at the ground, there is no shadow.
Well, unless you wanna make a horror movie
or a really bad Photoshop,
creating shadows are essential
because if there's a light, there would be a shadow.
We learned how to match the lights and the colors,
but to have the light, we have to have the shadows,
and we have to have the shadows with the new surrounding
or the new environment where we add the new element.
Make sense?
So in this lesson, we're gonna learn three ways
to create shadows in Photoshop.
The first one is pretty obvious,
and that is, we're just gonna extract the old shadow
of the original element.
The second one is using drop shadow,
but in a different, interesting way.
And the third one is manually painting the shadows.
All of these ways are actually very interesting
and you'll have a lot of fun learning how to do this.
So without any further ado,
let's get started with the very first example.
So in this first example, we have a subject, as you can see,
and she has a pronounced shadow.
Now this technique, the first technique,
will only work if you have the shadow very clearly shown.
What does that mean?
Well, right now she has a shadow and there are no bumps
and ups and downs or disturbances
in the wall where the shadow is falling,
so we can actually use this shadow.
If the background was a lot textured,
if there was a lot going on in the background,
and let's say there was a stone background
with a lot of ups and downs and bumps and crevices,
then it would be very hard for us
to use and extract this shadow.
Even in the ground, the shadow is pretty clean.
I know there are some textures in there, but that's okay.
We can neglect that.
And this is the background, the new background,
that we're gonna be using.
Let's open them up in Photoshop.
So I'm just gonna drag it and drop it
into Photoshop right over there.
We have the background in place.
On top of that, let's just drag and drop the subject.
Let's drag it and drop it right there.
First of all, let's adjust the subject.
I think her size is relatively all right,
so let's keep her in line.
Now, once you have done that,
we have to make a layer for the shadow,
and one layer for the subject.
So let's make two copies of it.
We already have one.
Press control or command J to make one more.
Firstly, let's just double-click here,
and this is for the shadow, so let's name it shadow.
And this will be the subject.
So double-click on the text and name it subject, okay.
Let's turn off the shadow for now.
Now with the subject layer,
let's select the quick selection tool,
the object selection tool, or the magic wand tool,
any of these three tools.
And at the top, you will see, select subject.
Now just to make sure that Photoshop does not accidentally
take in some of the background, and it won't,
because if you have the subject layer selected,
it probably won't.
Just turn off the background layer, all right.
Select the subject layer and then click on select subject.
Photoshop does a pretty good job of selecting the subject.
Now, if you want, you can go in and refine the selections
and make sure that you have a proper selection of the hair
and just erase the extras from here.
You can take all the time in the world to do that.
And we have discussed a lot of selection methods before,
so you can refer those previous lessons as well.
But in this case, I'm just gonna subtract this area
using the quick selection tool,
probably add this shoelace back up. It's fine.
You know, if you zoom out, you won't be able to tell.
I'm just being lazy here.
You take your time.
All right, but once the selection is in place,
just click on the mask button.
We have the subject.
Now let's turn on the background.
But where is the shadow?
Let's turn on the shadow.
Now we might have learned a little bit
about blend modes before, the important blend modes.
Remember the very first lessons?
We learned about multiply.
Now multiplies of blend mode which darkens.
So let's change the blend mode of the shadow
from normal to multiply.
Now we have the shadows, all right,
but we have a lot of other places.
So let's just mask out only the shadow.
So you don't have to be very accurate here.
Select the lasso tool,
and just have a rough selection around the shadow area,
this particular area, all right.
And then click on the mask button.
You still see a lot.
Now, if you're wondering,
"How is the selection edge so smooth?"
Well, my feather was increased.
So right now have a look.
I had a feather of 15.
If the feather would be zero, there would be no softness.
And as you increase the feather,
it adds softness to the selection.
We don't really need that.
I had it on for my previous project,
but just keep in mind that you change your settings back
to normal after you do any other project.
Anyway, so once you have that selection in place,
click on the mask button.
This is something you should see.
Now we don't wanna bring in any of the color
from the shadows background, okay.
We don't wanna bring in this blue.
We don't wanna bring in this brown.
So we have to take that color away.
For that, we create a hue saturation adjustment layer.
But right now, if I play with it,
it also takes away the saturation of the new background.
We don't want that to happen, so what do we have to do?
We have learned this before.
We have to create a clipping mask.
We have to limit this hue saturation adjustment layer
to just the shadow layer.
And the way to do that is you click on this button.
You see this arrow right there.
It means it's limited to the shadow.
Also one other way is holding the alt key or the Option key
and clicking on the line between these two layers.
And now you can just take away the saturation, all right.
Now that the saturation is gone,
we can take away these extra areas
by creating another curves adjustment layer.
Click on the adjustment icon, and then choose curves,
and also limit it just to the shadows,
and just make these areas even brighter.
If it's absolutely white, it'll automatically be hidden.
Why? Because multiply is a blend mode
which makes things darker.
But it also is a blend mode which hides everything
that is a hundred percent white
and shows everything that is a hundred percent black.
So let's try to make it a hundred percent white
by taking the slider on the right to the left.
And just when these lines go away,
we have to stop, all right.
Don't go too excessive on this one
because the shadows would be too hard
and some weird things are gonna show up.
Now there are still lines here,
so we can go a little further, but not too much.
This is all right.
And there are certain things which we need
to clear up right there.
Don't worry about it.
Now let's come back to the mask of the shadow.
Take the brush, take a soft round brush,
and with black as the foreground color,
just erase these extras.
Make sure the flow and opacity are at a hundred.
Just erase these extras.
Nothing complicated here.
And erase these extra lines over here.
And it's gone. So simple.
Let me make the brush a little larger,
make the edges a little softer.
And there you have it, my friend, a realistic shadow.
Now the subject isn't still matching that well
with that of the background.
What do we do now?
Well, we can try making the shadows a little darker
or we can also try adjusting the background.
Let's do it one by one.
First of all,
let's add a little spotlight in the background.
So first, let's create a curves adjustment layer, all right.
And now we're gonna take it up just like this, okay.
Just make sure that it just matches
with that of the subject, okay.
This works for me, if you ask me.
Then you select the mask of the curves.
Press control or command I.
Then you take the brush, with a hard around brush,
not pressure size, with a regular hard round brush.
You can actually make sure the flow
and opacity are at a hundred.
With white as the foreground color,
just dab right over here.
Now we can take the brush, press, sorry.
Now you can press control or command D for transform,
and right-click on it, and then choose distort.
You can just shape it in whatever way you want.
So I'm just gonna shape it in the shape
of a spotlight like this, probably something interesting.
This works for me.
Okay. Now, once you have done that,
you go to the mask properties.
If I double-click here,
it takes me to the mask properties.
If it doesn't, just single click on the mask,
and then go to window
and make sure properties is checked, all right,
Or even if you are in the curves properties,
if you click on the mask icon right there,
it takes you to mask properties,
but for that, you have to select the mask.
Now you can simply increase the feather.
So in my opinion,
I think 300 would be a nice number to be at,
or probably even 400. Yeah.
Now after you have added feather,
you can still just move the spotlight according
to your wish, okay.
So I have moved it a little bit.
Let's move it up a little more.
Now, since we have added a spotlight,
I also want to make the surrounding areas a little darker.
So let's make a copy of this curves adjustment.
Press control or command J but in this case,
we want to have the opposite mask.
So select the mask, press control or command I,
and again, we do wanna do the opposite here.
So take the curves down.
I'm so sorry about it.
So take this point and bring it down like this,
just like that, okay.
Now we didn't wanna apply it on the floor
because the light is falling as a spotlight on her,
and a little bit light we want on the floor.
So let's get it here.
Take a brush.
You can also paint with the hard round brush
because the feather has already increased too much.
So now you can take it a little away from the floor.
That way it looked a little more realistic. Okay.
That looks all right.
Now on top of that, to match it even more,
I feel that the shadow should be a little more.
So what if we make a group of the shadow layer?
So select the shadow, hold the shift key,
select the topmost layer of the shadow adjustment,
which was the curves.
So we have the curves, hue, saturation,
and shadow all selected.
Press control or command G to create a group of that,
and then press control or command J to make a copy again.
Now with that copy, just decrease the opacity
and slowly and gradually increase it
to a point which feels okay to you,
which feels realistic to you.
I'm gonna keep it at about 25%.
On top of that, to make all of it a little more realistic,
you're gonna add a color lookup table.
I suggest you adding something like a candlelight.
See how nicely it brings everything together.
So let's keep it at 30%.
And also let's add one more color lookup table.
And this time we can go for something like a two strip,
no, three strip.
What do you think?
Three strip does look good.
Here's the before, here's the after.
See that? It adds a little to the photo.
So we can have it as well at about,
slowly and gradually increase it
to the point where you like it. 45%.
Let's add one more.
Let's add a lookup table.
In my opinion, color lookup tables are a great way
to mix and match things, and just bring everything together.
And just experiment with a combination
of color lookup tables in Photoshop.
And as I was saying,
one of the best ways to just bring the composite together.
Three strip, we have already applied that.
Crisp warm, oh my gosh,
that is really creating a nice effect.
Candlelight. We have done that.
Crisp warm is really making it pop.
So you can just scroll through
and experiment what works for you.
And by the way, this scrolling that I'm doing,
I have found that I can only do it in Windows.
Maybe you can do it in Mac, maybe not.
I'm not sure, because with the earlier version of Photoshop,
I wasn't able to scroll.
And the way I'm doing that is that I'm clicking once here
and I'm just scrolling with my mouse.
So I feel that crisp warm is really adding a lot
to the photo.
Let's go for about 50% of that.
And there we have a wonderful composite.
Let me share with you the before and after.
So, okay. So this was the before.
This is the background and this is the subject, okay,
not matching at all.
Now, if I turn on everything, this is the after.
Look at that.
Just extracting the original shadow
looks so much more realistic.
So whenever you have the opportunity
to just extract the original shadow,
prefer that over painting shadows any day.
Now, in which situations can we extract the original shadow?
It's simple.
The shadow has to be clean. That's it.
If the shadow is clean,
if the surface that has the shadow,
doesn't have a lot of texture or disturbing elements,
you can clearly extract the shadow.
Also, in situations where the shadow doesn't fall
on a flat surface, and the surface is very up and down
or curvy, in that situation as well,
you cannot extract the shadow unless the new surface is also
curved in the exact same way, which is very rare.
So, unless you have a shadow on a flat surface
or a similar surface, in this case,
it was not on a completely flat surface.
It's flat here, and then at the bottom,
we have this ground where the shadow is also there.
So we pasted the subject in such a way,
in such a new background, where it's the same way.
It's not a flat concrete wall.
Let's move on to the second technique.
Let's save this and let's move on to the second one.
Okay, so for the second technique, we have drop shadow.
Now some of you might already know what drop shadow is,
just dropping a shadow and creating some nice text effects.
We have also worked with drop shadow before,
but what if I told you that you can actually separate the
drop shadow to create some interesting effects
and also get more freedom.
That's what we're gonna do with this example.
So first of all, let's drag in this new background.
Now let's drop it and Photoshop.
And by the way, if you're working with some documents
and you wanna close the other documents,
there's an option in Photoshop to do that.
All you have to do is to go to file
and then choose close others.
And it just closed the document that we previously worked
with because we had saved it.
If we hadn't saved it,
it'll give you a warning that you need to save that.
Anyway, so you have this new background,
and I want this man to be standing here.
Now, remember the lesson
where we learned about perspectives,
that we have to match the horizons?
So in this case, even if you try to match the horizons,
even if you do your best,
let's imagine these lines just touching the
vanishing point right over there.
And even if you do that,
it might not always be perfect.
As I told you in that lesson,
when it comes to matching the horizon and vanishing points,
you don't have to take it very seriously,
because there is a very good possibility that both
of those images were taken with different kinds of lenses.
For example, let's say if this image was taken
with a telephoto lens, and this sea beach was taken
with a wide angle lens,
in that case, it just won't work well.
So keep that info in mind.
Anyway, let's just place him and turn off the background
so that we can just focus on him,
and let's click on select subject,
the way we did with the previous example.
Let's turn this back on and then click on the mask button.
Now, as you can see, he looks like a giant.
Even if we tried to match the horizons,
tried to match the vanishing points,
he does look like a giant.
So we have to kind of guess it right over here.
I'm gonna right click over here,
and then just again choose convert to smart object
so that we don't have to deal with that mask.
And if we want to deal with that mask,
we can always double-click right over here.
It takes us to another document
where we have the mask available.
It's still all non-destructive.
Anyway, press control or command D,
place him where you wanna place him.
So I feel that I wanna place him right over here,
and let's make him smaller.
So I'm bringing the anchor point down,
so that when I make him smaller and hold the alt key,
he's gonna stay in the same place, okay.
So this size seems to be just about right.
And that's okay.
And we can move it left or right,
and see what works for us.
A little bit to the left is all right.
Now, there are two options.
You can match the color of the background to the subject
or subject to the background.
We often match the color of the subject to the background,
but in this case, we have a black and white subject.
So I'm not gonna work hard
and just recolor the subject again.
So let's make the background black and white.
One of my favorite ways to create black and white
conversions that really create really good contrasting
black and whites is just creating a gradient map.
Yes, that's right.
Now, I understand that you can also create a black and white
adjustment layer and have a lot of adjustments here, right.
But no matter what you do, let me reset that first.
This is the default result
with black and white adjustment layer.
However, let me share this with you. Pretty cool.
If we create a gradient map from black to white,
it creates a much more fantastic contrasting results.
So this is with the black and white adjustment layer.
And this is what the gradient map.
See that? See that smooth contrasting result?
I kind of like that.
You can do whatever you want.
Of course, you can adjust the black and white adjustment
layer to make it look like this.
But, you know, I just love this,
because it gives you good results out of the box.
Now I can go here and I can just meddle with these settings.
So I can click on one of these sliders
and we can take this diamond a little bit
to the right or left,
to just make it darker or brighter and control the balance
of blacks and the whites.
So I feel that if I move it a little bit to the right,
this seems to be all right at about location 62.
Okay. Now let's create the shadow of this man.
How do we do that again?
Well, we can simply create a drop shadow.
Some of you might say, "Ahmesh, what you're thinking?"
Well, I'm thinking right.
So double-click on the right, inside of the layer.
By the way, there is no right or wrong in Photoshop.
There are just hundreds of ways.
You just have to pick which one works
for you and your image, okay.
Let's check drop shadow.
Now, this is not the kind of shadow we wanted to create.
First of all, let's select drop shadow.
So we can actually move drop shadow,
if you already didn't know that.
You can move it here and there.
Of course, you can just increase the size
and change the opacity and all that.
But really this wasn't the shadow we wanna create.
We don't wanna make it look like it's just attached
with a spring on top of a flat photo.
We don't want that.
So here's what we do.
Increase the opacity all the way to a hundred,
because we want the ability to adjust this later,
and we decrease the size.
So that's all very accurate and hard edged
so that we can adjust it or blur it to our liking later.
Once you're done with this, you can place it anywhere.
It doesn't really matter, and hit okay.
There's also another way of doing that,
but then again, I want it to show you how
to separate a drop shadow.
So this is a drop shadow as an effect,
but what if you wanna separate it?
Well, you can go to layer, layer style,
and then create layer.
Hit okay.
Now you have the job shadow on another layer.
With the drop shadow separated, first of all,
let's convert it into a smart object
so that no matter stretching and bending that we do,
we can change that later,
and not do it without losing details
or causing any damage to the quality.
So right click on it
and then choose convert to smart object.
Press control or command D right here.
That's selecting all of it, so right click on it again,
and convert it to smart object again.
Press control or command D.
Whenever that happens,
just convert it to smart object again.
It'll just limit it to that.
Right click on it and then choose distort.
Now you can create a shadow out of this.
There you go.
Now of course, what I would suggest is first of all,
let's just bring him in sync with the person and then do it.
Let's zoom out a little and bring it down.
Bring this point down as well.
Just keep it in line with the sun.
And I feel this looks about right.
Let's zoom in.
I know, his legs look awkward and they should match.
Now you can, of course, separate this area
and try to move it or paint it back in.
I'm just super lazy, so here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm just gonna bring it up.
I know this is not the right way to do it,
but it looks all right.
It looks okay to me.
So let's just try to hide our mishaps, okay.
Now we see a line here.
So how do we fix the line?
That's on the subject, so just above the subject layer,
let's just name it subject.
And this is the shadow.
It's actually the drop shadow that we separated.
Let's name it shadow.
Above the subject, let's create a brand new layer.
Hold the alt key or the option key
and click on the line between these two layers.
Now let's take the brush, sample this color,
and just paint over this area.
Now that gap is filled, okay.
Now, have you ever noticed that
if there's a light source right here,
and here's a wall,
if you put your hand close to the wall,
the shadow is very pronounced
and the edge of the shadows is very hard, right?
As soon as you begin to move away your hand from the wall,
the shadow grows to be softer and softer, right.
That's what's gonna happen here.
The shadow that is closer to the subject will be hard,
and as it goes more and more further,
it'll be softer and softer.
In Photoshop's language, it would be more blurrier, okay.
A great way to do do that actually,
is applying the tilt shift blur.
So select the shadow layer.
Go to filter, blur gallery, and then tilt shift.
Now we want the blur to start right over here.
We already know what tilt shift is.
You want the blur to start just right here,
where the shadow starts, okay.
And we want the blur to gradually grow
up until the last point right here.
Let's increase the value and see what suits best
with this example.
Let's choose 150.
We can always change these values later, and hit okay.
And there, my friend, we have our shadow.
Now, definitely the shadow is too dark,
so let's just lighten it up a bit by decreasing the opacity.
Now again, it doesn't get equally lightened.
Close to his leg, it would be a little more darker,
because right now have a look.
This area looks nice, okay, lightened.
But this area just looks too fake, okay.
So we need to lighten it in a meticulous way.
For that, create a mask for the shadow layer.
Take the gradient tool.
Take gradient from black to white,
and then just create a gradient from right here.
Just like this.
Now we did just the opposite because the reverse is checked,
so make sure reverse is unchecked.
Do something like this, but that would be extreme, right.
So let's start right here at the very end.
And if you hold the shift key, it would be a straight line.
Anyway, we don't want it to be a straight line.
So (indistinct) his leg.
We'll keep it like this.
Again, it's too harsh.
So go to the mask properties, select the mask,
and just open up the properties by going
to window, and then make sure properties is checked.
In here, just decrease the density right here.
Density is like the opacity of the mask.
So at zero density, it's like we had no mask.
Slowly and gradually let's decrease the density
to what feels all right,
whatever gradient that feels all right.
To me, if you asked me, I'm gonna keep it at about 30-ish.
On top of that, you can also decrease the opacity even more
at about 80% or 90%.
What do you feel about that?
I think 90 looks nice.
On top of that, we also add a little more.
You can also select the gradient in the mask.
Press control or command T to adjust it.
But before that, you need to unlink the mask,
then press control or command D,
then just adjust the ingredient to your liking.
Let's keep it that way.
And there we have our shadow.
Now there are still some work to do.
If you look at the subject, it has some noise,
but the background doesn't have much noise,
enough noise to match that of the subject.
So just above the background layer,
we can create a noise lab.
Press control shift N, command shift N,
to bring up the new layer dialog box.
Change the blend mode to overlay.
Check velvet overlay in neutral color, hit okay.
Now it is gray.
Let's name it grain.
Now let's add some noise to it.
Go to filter, convert for smart filters, hit okay,
so that we can change the value of noise later.
Let's go to filter, noise, and then add noise.
We'll add a similar amount of noise here.
Let's go for about 35 is fine, in my opinion, if you ask me,
but this noise is very, very sharp.
We need to just soften it a bit.
Let's go to filter, blur,
and then gaussian blur for the noise.
And let's go for 0.4.
Okay. About four or 0.3.
Let's go for 0.4.
That's a little more smoother that way.
And there we have some noise.
Also the noise is too much,
so let's make sure it's not that much.
If you look at the sky, it's just too much.
So let's decrease the value and set it at about 40%.
A little bit of noise is all right.
Now, have a look at the sides.
These sides are not supposed to be so bright.
On the top, it's okay. I understand,
but these sides, well let's darken it.
So just above the subject layer, create another layer.
Hold the alt key or the option key.
Click on the line between these two,
so that we also limit that to the subject.
Take a brush.
Black as the foreground color is fine
because it's already black and white.
We don't have to worry about colors.
And now just simply paint with a lower flow.
Flow at 1%. We're just darkening these areas.
You can also do it with curves,
but really, this is more effective in this case.
Not saying it'll be in all the cases,
but in this case, it is.
Okay, there we go.
Let's take a look at the before and after.
So here's the before, light's coming in from the sides,
not looking that realistic.
Also this side needs to get a little darker.
The light on this side is fine.
Now that we have matched that,
you can also create a curves adjustment layer
on top of that to even darken or brighten it.
But in this case, in my opinion,
if you look at it, it looks all right.
Also, what if we add just a little glare to it?
It will really bring everything together very well.
So let's create a layer at the top and sample,
just sample this color, which is obviously white.
With a soft round brush, make it enough larger,
and just dab right over here, just to create a glare.
Now, increase the flow when you do that, okay.
And this is all right.
Now the intensity here is too much.
Let's decrease the opacity and let's set it to about 40%.
And boom, with that glare, it really makes the image.
Look at the shadow.
It's so magnificent.
So that's how you separate the drop shadow,
and you shape it in any which way you want.
Now, there will be cases
where you cannot do either of these.
So first, we extracted the shadow in this example,
as you can see.
We had a clean shadow that we could extract.
In this example,
this subject did not have any complicated movement,
plus he was standing flat.
So it was easy to create a drop shadow and separate it
and shape it the way we want.
But in every case, it won't be that simple.
Sometimes you will have to paint the shadows.
And that brings us to our last example.
Let's take a look at that.
So here we have a background and let's say,
I wanna place a cup here.
So let's just drag that and drop it over it.
Now, in this case, extracting shadow wouldn't be that easy
because there are lots of objects right here.
And also at the same time,
the shadow area is a little textured as well.
And it's just not, the shadow is just not looking all right.
So first of all, I would just press control or command D,
and flip the image horizontally,
because in this case, if you look at the background,
I feel that the light is coming a little bit
from the left hand side,
because if you look at the right hand side,
it's a little darker.
The left hand side is a little brighter.
So I just flipped the image horizontally
so that the lights match.
Now we need to create the shadows.
First of all, let's select the cup,
and we can easily do that with the object selection tool.
And you can choose a rectangle or lasso
just to make a selection around it.
And Photoshop does a pretty good job.
Now, it doesn't do a great job of it.
I would recommend using the pen tool,
but to save time, I'm using the object selection tool.
Now we want to subtract this area.
Let's choose lasso.
Hold the alt key or the option key and tell Photoshop,
"All right, this is not a part of the selection."
And it does a good job.
This is also not a part of the selection.
Photoshop takes that away.
This is also not a part of the selection.
Now, these, we might have to do it manually.
All right, good.
Click on the mask button.
Now there is no option but to create our own shadow here.
So just above the background layer,
create a brand new layer.
And I would recommend creating these shadows
in layers so that you have control over each zone.
Now, while you're creating the shadows,
as we discussed before,
the shadow area that is closer
to the subject would be the darkest.
The shadow area which is further
from the subject would be a little lighter,
and it continues to be lighter and lighter.
And if it's a soft shadow, a very soft shadow,
in that case, before even completing the entire shadow,
it just becomes so blurred that it just vanishes away.
Anyway, so in this example,
as you can see in the original image,
the shadow is very soft.
And before even completing that,
it just blurs so much that it looks like it just vanished.
So here we'll start with flow at 1%
and start painting the shadows here, very close to the mug.
You're not gonna worry about areas that are further away.
You're only gonna paint very close to the mug,
just so that it looks like it's on the ground.
Now, if you don't wanna get disturbed by the texture,
you can also create a solid color adjustment layer
and choose white, so that it's very clear that way.
Now, as you can see, we did a lot of mistakes
because in texture, it's very hard to tell.
So let's redo this again.
Select all, delete. Okay.
Don't forget to de-select after that.
Anyway, let's paint this area in black.
Notice that I'm doing circular motions.
If I did create straight lines here like this,
then it will also create some ups and downs,
some unevenness, okay.
So there's a technique to it.
Create circular motions.
If the shadow is getting inside of it, that's fine.
It's gonna be covered anyway.
You're just painting the shadows which are closer,
which give us a feeling that this is attached to the ground.
Okay. That does it, actually.
It does make us feel that it's attached to the ground.
So this, my friend, is the first layer of shadow.
So you can name it layer one.
Now let's go for the second layer of shadow.
So we'll just try to go a little more outside in this case,
just a little more.
Now, as you can notice,
the first layer is getting just too dark.
Don't worry about it.
We can control that later.
If you have painted some area accidentally,
you can hold the tilda key,
the key on the left-hand side of one.
It turns into eraser.
The same brush turns into eraser with the same flow
and the same values.
And when you release the tilda key,
it gets you back to the brush.
Let's do the third layer right now.
You can take all the time in the world
to create the perfect shadow here.
I'm doing a super quick job.
A little bit shadow here also looks all right.
Okay. So there we have your shadow.
It's not looking perfect right now.
Don't worry about it.
There are some adjustments here which we need to do.
Number one is definitely, we need to control the opacity.
We cannot completely take away a particular shadow.
We have to control how much of it do we want.
So I feel that about 70% of the first layer is what we want.
For the second layer,
you probably want a little less, okay, 44.
For the third layer, you probably want something like this.
See that? As soon as we start adjusting the opacities,
it begins to look okay.
Now opacity also might differ from background to background.
So once you take that away,
the opacities might be something different.
In this case, I wanna increase number two, probably,
or number three.
It's up to you as to how you wanna go about it.
Now, after you're done painting the shadows,
do not forget to also adjust the same
with the subject as well.
So on top of the subject layer,
hold the alt key or the option key
and click on the line between these two,
and then just paint over the subject a little bit.
You can also paint a little darkness
in this area where the shadow just starts,
because this is a different surface.
Just by doing that, look how realistic it looks.
Now overall, you can create a group of all the shadow layers
and just control how much of it do you want.
I feel we need to keep it at about 80%,
and there you have it.
Now on top of that,
you can also add a curves adjustment layer
and limit it just to the cup right there,
and adjust it accordingly as well.
I feel that this will go a little darker,
and this particular area needs to go a little darker.
And let's make the shadows a little brighter.
These little adjustments might help.
Here's the before, here's the after.
It's matching even more.
Now, if the cup was of a different color, let's say red,
the red would also fall onto the shadows a little bit.
Let me share that example with you as well,
because that's important.
So let's say I create a solid color adjustment layer,
a red color, and then if I change it to multiply.
And hold the alt key, the option key,
click on the line between these two layers.
Now this cup is red.
Let's give it a little lighter red
or give it a yellowish color, okay.
Now, if that was yellow, if that was red,
we could have just used blend to take it away
from the extreme bright areas to make it more realistic.
So double-click on the right hand side of the layer.
Take the slide off the underlying layer from right to left.
This is very harsh, so hold the alt key or the option key,
click on the slider to break it apart.
And you can do something like this,
and take it away from the extreme bright areas,
so that they still retain the white.
Okay. Anyway, let's say this is yellow.
Now the shadow doesn't look right,
because the shadow needs to have a little bit of yellow
to it as well.
So to add a little yellow to the shadows,
we need to create a gradient map.
So this is the shadows group, before, after.
Let's add a little yellow by creating a gradient map.
And in this gradient map,
we want to add the same yellow that we added here.
So on the right hand side of the gradient,
let's pick this yellow.
It's not picking anything. Why?
Because the mask is selected.
Make sure the adjustment is selected.
Then go here, single click on right here.
For the right slider, let's choose this yellow,
get a little brighter.
And for the left one, we can go for a little,
the same yellow, a little darker session of that,
darker version of that.
Okay, great. Hit okay.
This is just a simple gradient.
You only wanna apply it to the shadows.
Hold the alt key or the option key,
and click on the line between these two layers.
Now it's only on the shadows.
Now we want the shadows to only darken,
so change the blend mode of the shadow group to multiply.
Still, it has that little yellow-ish tone to it.
You see that?
So we need to decrease the opacity.
We don't want it to be that yellow.
A little bit yellow is all right.
Maybe about 50%.
There's the tint there.
Here's the before, here's the after.
See that it will reflect some of its color.
Anyway, with the shadows, let's increase its opacity back
to a hundred because I feel it needs to be a little darker
and that fixes everything.
So for every background, the opacity is gonna be different.
For every color, you might have to make some little
adjustments, but that is the gist of it.
That is how you paint the shadows
in some scenarios where we cannot,
number one, extract the original shadow,
and number two, use drop shadow.
So here I feel I need to add a little more shadow
on the left hand side, so let's go back in here.
Let's go back to one of the layers
and maybe with flow at 1%.
Maybe I can add a little bit more here.
You can just spend hours and hours with this.
And in these cases,
the skill actually is to learn when to stop,
because there will be times
where you just won't be satisfied
and you might wanna just keep doing.
So we have to take that tendency away.
Anyway, so those are three ways
to create shadows in Photoshop.
Number one is extracting the original shadows.
And the way we do that is that when we bring a new subject
to the background,
we make two copies of it.
With the second copy, which is below,
we change its blend mode to multiply
and also mask in the shadow.
We use curves adjustment layer
to remove anything that is extra,
and just keep only the shadows.
We also use masks to manually remove the extras,
and we also take away the colors,
in most cases, if the colors of the original surface
of the shadow is disturbing too much.
That's basically the process of it.
After that, you can use some compositing techniques
to mix and match the subject for that of the background,
but that's the basic fundamentals of it.
The second one is just separating the drop shadow.
In this case, you can also just make a selection
of the subject, and on a separate layer,
fill that area with black,
and twist and turn the fill that you just made
to create the shadow, or you can create a drop shadow.
And just like we did,
separate that by going to layer, layer style,
and create layer, and use distort
to shape it in whatever way you want,
according to the short source of light.
Also do not forget, as the shadow area goes further
and further away, it gets blurrier and blurrier,
and also lighter and lighter, okay.
So keep that in mind while you're creating that shadow.
The third one is manually painting the shadow.
In not all cases, you will have the privilege
of having the shadows perfectly on a clean background
so that you can extract it.
Or having the subject in such a position
where you can just create a drop shadow and separate it,
and just move it in any way you want
to create a realistic shadow.
In some cases, you just have to paint the shadow
where the shape or the position
of the subject is a little complicated to use drop shadow,
or having a clean surface to extract the original.
And the way to paint is painting layer by layer.
On the first layer, you paint the shadow,
which is very close to the subject or the object.
So you make sure that the area is dark enough
so that the object looks as if it's touching the ground.
Create a second layer and create a shadow
for a little further away areas, so on and so forth.
You can create three layers, five layers,
as many layers as you please.
The advantage here is
that whenever you add a new background,
you have the flexibility to control the opacities
of each and every layer.
And those will change according to the surface you have.
Also, if the object is off color,
don't be afraid to add a gradient map just to the shadows,
to add a little tint of that color.
I hope the concepts of shadows are a little clearer now,
and I hope that it's gonna help you
in your own composites.
Please experiment, please play with it, please do practice.
And I'll see you in the next one.
'Til then, stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.