The graphic editor allows you to do a lot with images, including simulating such optical phenomenon like a shadow. This can be useful for creating drawings and also when editing photos. Here you will learn how to make a shadow in Photoshop in three ways.

Method 1 - styles

In general, it is suitable for any graphic images, but is not always effective for creating shadows from people and objects in photographs. It is more convenient to use it in cases where the object is on a separate layer. Let's take the inscription as an example.

Working with styles is very simple:

1. Open the Layers window and move to the object.
2. Double-click on the layer and the styles window will appear:

3. In the column on the left with various options, find “Shadow” and check the box next to it, then select the option with the mouse - its settings will open. Second option: press fn at the bottom of the layers window and select “Shadow” from the pop-up menu.

4. Can be adjusted: color, opacity, angle, size, span, shift, add noise, change outline. As you change the parameters, you will see how the shadow changes in the image. This is what happened in our sample:

Method 2 - copying

Sometimes it becomes necessary to shift the shadow in such a way that it is not possible to do this in styles. This is especially true for photographs where the background has been replaced. In this case, you can use the method of copying a layer with a person or object and simulating a shadow that will exactly follow the shape.

• Duplicate the object's image (CTRL+J).
• Move to a new layer, press and hold CTRL and, without releasing, click on the preview with the mouse (when you hover the cursor, a small dotted square will appear). The object will be highlighted.
• If you also make a text shadow in Photoshop, you need to rasterize it; use the right mouse button to select the “Rasterize text” option.
• Take a brush with black (or another) color and paint the selected area on the second layer. The selection can be removed (CTRL+D).

• Drag the filled layer down below the object.
• From the Edit menu, select Transform and Flip Vertical.
• Adjust the opacity of the shadow as needed.

What can you do with it, in contrast to the one created by styles:
Resize and rotate using the Free Transform option in the Edit menu.
Remove partially with an eraser if necessary.
Freely move around the image.
Using the Perspective tool in the Transform submenu, you can “put it on the ground”:

Actually, you can do whatever you want.

If you are working with a photo with a background, the procedure will be slightly different. To copy an object to a new layer, select it with a Quick Select and click CTRL+J. Do this twice, make one layer without a background a shadow, and place the second on top. To add realism, the shadow can be blurred using Gaussian Blur in the Filter menu. This is exactly how the shadow of an object is made in Photoshop:

Method 3 - drawing

If you need a light, barely noticeable shadow, then the easiest way is to just paint it with a brush.

1. Create a new layer.
2. Take soft brush with the desired color.
3. Draw a shadow.
4. Reduce its opacity.

Alternatively, you can change the blend mode to Soft Light or another, depending on what exactly you need. This shadow can be drawn with just a few strokes:

We've looked at three ways to make a shadow, and if you still have questions or something didn't work out or didn't quite understand, we suggest you watch the video tutorial. It will help you simply repeat the teacher's actions. We are sure you will succeed!

Video “How to make a shadow in Adobe Photoshop”:

To correctly draw any three-dimensional figure, it needs to be analyzed. That is, pay attention to what geometric shapes it consists of. Usually any complex shape mentally breaks down into several simple ones - a ball, a cylinder, a parallelepiped cone, a cube.

On a cylindrical surface, shadows are located depending on the brightness and distance of the light source. Let's look at an example of diffuse lighting from the front and left side of a cylinder.

Where the light falls almost directly on the object, a bright spot is formed (on a cylinder this is a light stripe along its entire length). This area is called light. Around it, the light falls obliquely, as if sliding across the surface - here a penumbra (or semitone) is formed. After this section there is a place where the sun's rays do not penetrate, there we see a dark stripe - a shadow. Following it again comes a slightly illuminated area - penumbra or also called a reflex. It is formed as a result of reflection from objects or planes located nearby.

Strokes must always be applied according to the shape of the object. Horizontal or vertical. In some cases, you can combine different shading to highlight or enhance the shadows.

Now let's try to draw a ball. I have already told you how to construct a circle using auxiliary lines. When the circle is constructed, the extra lines need to be erased (try to draw the auxiliary lines as lightly and thinly as possible).

The gradations of light and shadow on the ball are located in the same way as on a cylindrical surface, only according to the shape of the ball. There is also a strongly lit place - light, smoothly turning into partial shade, and then into shadow. The shadow is usually always followed by another penumbra - a reflex. If the surface of the ball is not matte, in place of the light you can see a bright white speck - a highlight.

The placement of light and shadow on an object depends on which side and at what angle the light source is located. If the source is very bright, the shadows become more saturated and sharp, if the light is diffused, then the transitions are smoother and softer.

If we now look at the jug, we will see that it consists of a cylinder, a ball and a truncated cone (from top to bottom). Now, understanding how to position the shadows, all that remains is to begin applying strokes to the shape of the jug.

In this article we will tell you how to draw shadows with a pencil correctly. IN artistic practice the ability to correctly sense the dark and bright sides will be a good help in any drawing. If you want to make the sketch visual and realistic, you need to give it volume.

Constructing and drawing figures such as a cylinder, ball, cone, cube is a rather tedious and uninteresting task. However, it is tasks like these that are the first step to understanding the volume of a geometric shape, as well as to the ability to depict its dark and light sides - that is, to the ability to draw shadows with a pencil step by step.

Light and shadow should be realistic and pleasing to the eye. This will give the drawings contrast, depth and a sense of movement. How to learn to draw shadows so that your drawings look more alive, attractive and interesting?

A little theory

Have you ever wondered what allows us to see the shape of objects? Let's reveal a secret: this is a collision of light and shadow.

If we place an object on a table in a room without windows and turn off the light, we will not see any form. If we illuminate an object with a very bright lamp or spotlight, then again we will not see its shape. It can only be seen by light that collides with shadow.

Neither light nor shadow falls on objects at random. There are certain patterns. They allow us to guess how the light will be located on the object, on its forms, and where the shadow will begin.

And the person who draws needs to know these patterns.

In drawing there are the following elements chiaroscuro:

- glare,
- light,
- penumbra,
- own shadow,
- reflex
- falling shadow.

Let's consider each of them in order.

A flare is a spot of light that is located on a convex or flat glossy surface and is obtained due to the strong illumination of the object.

Light is the surfaces of an object that are brightly illuminated.

Penumbra is a weak shadow. It occurs if an object is illuminated not by one, but by several light sources. In addition, it forms on surfaces that face the light source at a slight angle.

Shadow is those parts of an object that are dimly lit.

A falling shadow is one that an object casts on the plane on which it stands.

And his own is the one that is on the unlit side of it.

A reflex is a weak spot of light that is located in the shadow area. It is formed by rays that are reflected from other objects nearby. The depiction of these light gradations allows the artist to clearly depict the shape of an object on a sheet of paper, convey its volume and degree of illumination.

Do these rules work for computer graphics? Yes. Computer graphics- this is the same drawing.

Step 1: Selecting the Right Materials.

First of all, you need to choose correct pencil. Of course, you can paint shadows with charcoal, sanguine, gouache, and acrylic. But at first it is better to limit yourself to a pencil. Used for shadows special pencils for drawing. They are sold in sets. A budget option can be found at any office supply store. There are many types of drawing pencils. There are ones with a soft (M, 2M, 3M, ..., 8M, 9M) lead, and there are ones with a hard one (T, 2T, 3T, ..., 8T, 9T). In sets from foreign manufacturers, M is replaced by B, and T by H. To depict shadows, a set of 3T, 2T, T, TM, M, 2M and 3M will be enough. To depict light it is better to use hard pencils, and for shadow – soft. This way the drawing will look more natural and will be easier to draw.

Let's talk about paper.

Sheets that are too smooth, like the ones we print on, are not suitable for drawing. Don't use paper that is too hard. It will be difficult to draw shadows on it. It is best to use special drawing sheets, which are sold in a folder at office supply stores.

Step2 : linear sketch.

First of all, make a line sketch of what you want to draw. It is advisable to do this from life, but you can also use a photograph of the object. The most important thing is that the object you choose is motionless. In this case, you will have a lot of time to sketch it.
Take a close look at home environment. You can draw flowers, watches, kitchen utensils, and items of clothing. All of these are excellent subjects for sketching.
If you use a photograph, it is better to print it in black and white. This way you will be able to more accurately depict the outline and shadows.

Step 3: Achromatic Colors.

When working with a pencil, all achromatic colors are at your disposal. They start out white and end in black, with a few shades of gray in the middle.

How to create an achromatic scale?

Draw a rectangle: this can be done on a separate sheet of paper or in the corner of your drawing.
Divide this rectangle into five to seven equal parts, then number them. The very first rectangle will be white, and the last one will be black. The parts between them need to be painted over with different shades of gray, dividing them by tone.
The result is something like your pencil's palette: the first rectangle is white, the second is light gray, the third is medium gray, the fourth is dark gray, and so on, and the last is the darkest tone the pencil can produce.

Step 4: Shadow Theory.

To do this, it is necessary to understand their nature. Find the main light source. Observe that the lightest places are often closest to the light, the dark ones are further away, and the shadows fall against the light. Particular attention should be paid to reflections, as they can be the brightest place of the object chosen for drawing.

Step 5: Choosing a Hatching Method.

The shading is applied over the pencil sketch. Choose the way you will shade your sketch depending on the subject, the light source, and the type of drawing.

There are many types of shadow shading, and the most popular of them are straight, circular and cross.

A straight line is drawing many parallel lines as close to each other as possible. This method is great for objects without texture and for drawing hair.

For circular shading, you need to draw many small circles. This shading can be used to create interesting texture by scattering circles and adding lines to them. In addition, you can more clearly show the density of the object you are depicting by placing the circles close to each other.

Shading an object by drawing intersecting lines is cross-hatching. This method is great for adding depth to a drawing.

Consider the direction of the hatching and the shape of the object. Straight lines on rounded surfaces will not give the effect of volume; rounded surfaces must be hatched in the direction of the curvature of the planes.

Step 6: pen test.

Try making shadows. Since your drawing is still initial stage, you should not make them too dark. This way you can easily erase them if necessary. Draw, gradually filling in the places that are needed, and leaving the lightest places white.

As you paint, compare your work to the subject or a photograph of it to make sure you're putting the shadows in the right place.

Step 7: Patience and step by step work.

add shadows in several layers. They must be gradually darkened, layer by layer. There should be a noticeable contrast between dark and light areas.

Do not forget to use an achromatic scale: the drawing should not be in the same gray tones.

There's no need to rush. The process of shading shadows is similar to developing black and white film: it must happen gradually. Patience is your key to success and beautiful drawings.
The more you deepen the shadows in the drawing, the less noticeable its contours will become. And that’s right, because in real life almost nothing has a black outline. The same should be reflected in your drawing.

Step 8: Shading the Shadows.

Now blend the shadows in your drawing. It is necessary to make them more realistic and smooth. You need to control the pressure so that it is not too strong and too weak. Blend until you are satisfied with the result.

Buy special shading sticks from an art store. If you don't have shading, you can use a small piece of paper. Change paper frequently.

An eraser will help you highlight those places that you accidentally covered up. This could be a highlight, or a contour that is not completely hidden under the shading layer.

The main thing is to remember that most people who draw, including the most famous artists, at the initial stage creative path made mistakes.

Between your hand and the paper you are drawing on you can put Blank sheet printing paper: this way you will avoid stains on the drawing.

To avoid dirtying the sketch and correcting mistakes, it is better to use a vinyl eraser. Erasers made from this material do not damage paper and erase pencil marks well.

Don't use your finger to blend the shading. Your finger quickly gets dirty when you blend out dark areas and then stains lighter areas.

To make the difference between light and shadow more noticeable, you need to use good lighting.

It is better to hold the pencil at a smaller angle to the plane of the paper so that you can draw with the side of the lead rather than its tip. This will make the shadows more natural.

Draw as often as possible, hone your skills. Only through repeated training, starting with simple shapes, you can achieve high level craftsmanship (see photo).

I wish you creative success!

Choose the right materials. Of course you can draw with a regular pencil, on plain paper, but for shadows you should use special pencils. You can find inexpensive drawing pencils at almost any store. Try to find a stiff paper that will absorb the shadows.

Make a line sketch of your subject. Use an existing object or a photograph of an object. The most important thing is to keep your subject still so you have plenty of time to draw it.

• Take a closer look at household items. Household items such as flowers, kitchen utensils or clocks can be great subjects to paint. You can also draw something that you collect: hats or figurines.
• Use contrasting space to sharpen the contours of your subject. Contrast space is the space around your subject, for example if you are painting a chair, it is the space between the legs of the chair and the floor.
• If you use a photograph to draw something, try to print it in black and white. This way you can make more accurate shadows.

Decide on achromatic colors. Achromatic colors start with white and end with black, with several shades of gray in the middle. However, most objects use only five varieties of gray.

• To create an achromatic color scale, you'll want to start by drawing a rectangle. You can draw it in the corner of your drawing or on a blank piece of paper.
• Divide the rectangle into five parts and number them. You can divide the rectangle into more parts so that you have more shades of shadows, but 5 is enough to start with.
• Draw 5 different shades of gray, starting with white (the very first square) and ending with black (the last square).
• You shouldn't have black and White color in achromatic tones, unless your subject is in direct light. It is better to use only gray tones.

Find a light source. Shadows fall against the light, and the lightest parts will be closer to the light. The darkest parts will be further away from the light.

• Please pay attention Special attention reflections, as they may be the brightest part of your subject.
• Your light source will create shadows that you will have to paint in. Shadows make the drawing more realistic, so don't forget to draw them.

Select the hatching method. Depending on your subject, the light source, and the look of your drawing, you can choose between several types of shadow painting. Some of the most popular are straight hatching, cross hatching and circular hatching.

Make test shadows. Since you are still at the beginning of your drawing, you should not make the shadows hard and dark so that you can easily erase them if necessary. Draw softly and gradually fill in the places you need.

• Leave the lightest parts of your drawing white.
• Compare your drawing to your subject to make sure you're drawing the right shadows, in the right places.

Add several layers of shadows. Gradually darken by adding more layers of shadow. The contrast between dark and light places should become more noticeable.

• Use the achromatic tone scale. You will be able to have the same shades of gray throughout the entire drawing.
• Do not hurry. The process is reminiscent of developing black and white film; it occurs gradually. Patience is the key to success.
• The more you deepen your shadows, the less noticeable the outlines of your drawing will become. In real life, almost nothing has visible, black outlines. The same should happen in your drawing.

Anyone who works with any graphic images, quite often you have to add a shadow to the picture. Someone needs to add clip art elements to the picture. Someone cut out an object from a photo and paste it into another background. The picture turns out more realistic if you add a shadow to the inserted figure.

The shadow of objects can look different. Its appearance depends on the light source, on how the source is located in relation to the object. When creating a collage from parts of different photographs, you need to carefully look at which side of the lighting is in each of the fragments. And where do the shadows fall, if they exist, of course.

The easiest way in Photoshop is to create a shadow from a flat object raised above the surface. Moreover, located parallel to the surface. To do this, use the Drop Shadow layer effect. Read more about.

How to create a shadow using layer effects in Photoshop?

This shadow is usually the shadow of text raised above the surface. If they want to highlight it, give it a volume effect. All you need to do is place the object from which the shadow falls on a separate transparent layer. For this layer, set the Drop Shadow layer effect and that's it. This layer casts a shadow on the layer below.

To apply a layer effect in Photoshop, double-click on the layer name. In the Layer Style dialog box, select Drop Shadow (in some versions of Photoshop this term is translated as External Shadow).

To get a regular shadow, as in the picture, to the left and just below the text, set the following parameters:

With other parameters

another result:

Try experimenting with the settings in this dialog box and get your own ideas.

But this is the simplest option, but how to make a shadow on the ground from standing man? This effect is often simply necessary to add realism.

How to draw a shadow from a person in Photoshop

A cast shadow follows the contour of an object, but not exactly, but distortedly. If the light comes vertically from above, it will be small under the object. If this is the shadow of a person at noon, then it is under his feet. If the sun is setting, then the shadows are long and elongated.

Try creating a shadow of a person using the example of this lesson. You can use these images.

Open the cook's photo. In this photo you can see that the main light is coming from the left, therefore the shadow will be on the right.

Double click on a layer to unlock it. OK. Using any suitable selection tool, you need to select the object for which you will create a shadow and copy it to a new transparent layer. In this case, the background is uniform, so the easiest way is to select with the Magic Wand tool ( Magic wand) background, then select Select>Inverse. The human figure is highlighted. Copy the cook to a new layer (you can use the keyboard shortcut ).

Without removing the selection, create a new layer (Ctrl+N). Go to it and fill the selection with black. Name this layer Shadow.

The result should be three layers. The bottom layer is the original image, the background layer, we won’t touch it. In this photo, the background is simply white; there was no need to worry about preserving it. But your background may be different, and you will need it. The shadow should be above the background layer, but below the person's image.

If your layer order is not the same, change it by simply dragging the layers to the desired place.

For the Shadow layer, set the Opacity to 60%.

Apply the transformation command Edit > Transform > Distort (Edit > Transformation > Distortion). Move the markers to the side and down to “put” the shadow “on the floor” or on another surface. Be careful not to let it come off your feet. If it doesn’t work out perfectly, it’s okay, you can wipe it off with an eraser.

When the shadow is positioned naturally, complete the transformation by pressing Enter.

Create a layer mask - click the button at the bottom of the Layers palette.

Make sure the mask is highlighted. Draw a Gradient from the top right corner (or whichever side your shadow is on) to the bottom left corner. What is it for? The shadow is denser at the bottom at the feet, and the further away, the lighter. A gradient fill mask slightly hides the top of the shadow.

And finally, apply Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur (Filter - Blur - Gaussian) and set the blur you need for the shadow layer.

What if you need to cast a shadow not on a uniform background, but on grass, for example?

Our shadow is translucent, the grass shines through a little. Layers are used to add realism. For the layer with the shadow, set Soft Light (Soft light) or Multiply (Multiplication) if the shadow should be contrasting.

Here's the result:

Using shadow to create interesting effect on the picture.

The idea is that the shadow does not correspond to reality, but reflects the essence of the object.

For example, the big boss is sitting in a chair, and the shadow on the wall is a jester in a cap. Or the person in the photo smiles affably at the interlocutor, and his shadow looms menacingly over him.

Open two photos in Photoshop, the one to which we will add a shadow effect and the one that we decided to turn into a shadow. We use the second photo as a template, so you can take an image of any quality.

Remove the background from the image to create a shadow and create it on a new layer in the same way as you did above.

Then copy the created image into the first photo. Photo sizes may vary, so to adjust them, use the transformation command Edit>Transform>Scale (Edit>Transform>Scaling).

The shadow created should be behind the object, but above the background. Therefore, the object itself must be selected by any in a suitable way and duplicate it in a new layer.
Here is the result.