This section is reserved for advice on the use of Photoshop, Illustrator, and various other programs. It is our hope that these articles will be able to answer questions in the use of these programs. If there are techniques you would like to see added please send inquiries to info@fantigua.com. We try to answer all inquiries and will post the best examples here.  
 
Step One: In this edition, we will teach you how to use Adobe PhotoShop to make your own drop shadows on graphics or objects you import into the application. These techniques are meant only as a brief explanation of how to do this. Remember, you need to explore varying versions of this on your own. Open an existing file or create a new working file.
 
Step Two: After opening the background or file that you want to paste the object over, find the object or graphic that you wish to use by clicking on "File" then "Place". This will create a new layer with your imported object. This is the object to which we will be applying the drop shadow.
 
Step Three: In this sample, we are placing this automobile over a funky 70's style background. The next step will be to make the drop shadow layer. This technique teaches you how to make your own drop shadows, without third party Filters or Plug-ins.
   
Step Four: Duplicate the layer of the car. Now open the Hue/Saturation Adjustment, this can be done by pressing control U on the PC or command U on the Mac. Change the bottom value, (the "Lightness"), by dragging the slider to the far left. If the preview box is checked, you will see a realtime preview of this effect click ok when finished. After you do this, move the duplicated layer below the original, then use the move tool to offset the position of this layer down and to the right side.
   
Step Five: Go to the filters menu and select blur, Gaussian Blur. This will bring up the gaussian blur filter that is a default filter in PhotoShop. Change the setting to a value you think looks appropriate. This will vary depending on the size of the file, the resolution of the file, and personal preference. You should experiment with these settings. For this example, we used a setting of 4.
   
Step Six: This is our final step. Here we are going to adjust the opacity of the drop shadow layer so it looks more realistic. What ever you do, do not use 100%, it looks fake and not natural. The whole idea of doing this technique, is to compliment your image. We used a setting of 50% for our drop. We hope this tutorial was both informative and fun. Check out our other tutorials!