Creating Realistic Shadows

If you're doing most any type of product photography, chances are the product will wind up being used on a white background. So what if we (and many of us do) shoot the product, put a selection around it, copy the product to its own layer, delete the old background (which is usually kind of a grayish background), and then we add a drop shadow in Photoshop? Well, the problem is that the shadow always looks so "added-later-in-Photoshop." But here's a pro-trick that lets you get the most realistic shadowthe real shadow.

Step One

Open the photo to which you want to apply the "real shadow" technique. In this example, the product (a Bose SoundDock for the iPod) is shot against a seamless white background, which looks kind of grayish (which is pretty typical unless the background is well lit). To get the product off this background, you'll have to put a selection around it first, so get the selection tool of your choice and go to it. (In this example, I used the Pen tool [P] set to Path in the Options Bar to trace a path around the dock and speakers, and then I converted my path into a selection by pressing Command-Return [PC: Control-Enter].) Once you've got a selection around your product, press Command-J (PC: Control-J) to put the product on its own layer. Then, go to the Layers palette and click on the Background layer to make it active.

Step Two

Press Command-A (PC: Control-A) to put a selection around the entire background, and then press Delete (PC: Backspace) to delete the gray background, leaving just your product on its own layer, with a completely white background layer below it. Deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Control-D).

Step Three

Press Y to get the History Brush tool (it's right above the Gradient tool in the Toolbox). In the Options Bar, click on the thumbnail to the right of the word "Brush," and choose a medium-sized, soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker. Now, start painting along the bottom edge of your product where the original shadow used to be. The trick is to paint mostly over your product and have just about a third of the brush extending outside your product. So, as you paint, the original shadow will be painted in.

Step Four

Continue painting along the bottom edge, and remember not to let your brush tip extend too far into the white spaceyou really want to hug the bottom edge of your product, so only the original shadow is painted in and not too much of the old gray background. The complete shot is shown here, with the original shadow back in place, minus the ugly gray background. Sweet!