How To Contort A Cast Shadow?

[Pixel Massager]

Greetings.

I'm attempting to create a realistic shadow for a table.
When I Transform/Distort the shadow, the lowest portion of the table legs move away from the actual table legs, making the shadow unrealistic.

How can I Transform the shadow in such a way that the lowest portion of all four table legs do not move away from the table when being distorted?

Please see attachment

Thank You!!

 

[JeffK]

I tried...and tried...and tried. Used puppet warp, regular warp, perspective warp, transform....nothing looked right.
Finally decided to place the shadow on a separate layer using your original. Then I erased the back legs and cross bar.
Then created a separate layer with the back legs and cross bar only. Ended up erasing and drawing in the cross bar by hand. This became my shadow layer.
Clipped a graduating tone to the entire shadow area.
Not perfect but I think it's close to where you want to go...and this is how I spent my morning...


Here's what my layers look like if this is the direction you want to go:

 

[JeffK]

This has been obsessing me all day. Even got out some toy furniture and cast shadows with a flashlight. Found out there is no easy one-click way to do this.
Here's one more try with a different approach - using the process in this video:

I came up with this version - lot of distortion in play:

 

[Pixel Massager]

Greetings.

I'm attempting to create a realistic shadow for a table.
When I Transform/Distort the shadow, the lowest portion of the table legs move away from the actual table legs, making the shadow unrealistic.

How can I Transform the shadow in such a way that the lowest portion of all four table legs do not move away from the table when being distorted?

Please see attachment

Thank You!!

View attachment 123341

Greetings.

I'm attempting to create a realistic shadow for a table.
When I Transform/Distort the shadow, the lowest portion of the table legs move away from the actual table legs, making the shadow unrealistic.

How can I Transform the shadow in such a way that the lowest portion of all four table legs do not move away from the table when being distorted?

Please see attachment

Thank You!!

View attachment 123341

I tried...and tried...and tried. Used puppet warp, regular warp, perspective warp, transform....nothing looked right.
Finally decided to place the shadow on a separate layer using your original. Then I erased the back legs and cross bar.
Then created a separate layer with the back legs and cross bar only. Ended up erasing and drawing in the cross bar by hand. This became my shadow layer.
Clipped a graduating tone to the entire shadow area.
Not perfect but I think it's close to where you want to go...and this is how I spent my morning...

View attachment 123342
Here's what my layers look like if this is the direction you want to go:

View attachment 123343

Hey JeffK... thanks for having a crack at this!
Just found your reply... it had gone into my junk mailbox.
I didn't expect anyone to actually work on it, I was just asking the question... that's above and beyond!

What I ended up doing,— in case you're interested— was similar to your approach:

1) created drop shadow
2)created a layer from the drop shadow
3) placed each of the table legs on their own layer so I could position them freely
4) with a layer mask added to the shadow layer, I dragged-out a gradient to fade-out the shadow
5) applied a Field Blur to the shadow layer

A real pain in the backside... but finally got'er done. I had eleven of them to do on various desk shots.

Thanks again!

 

[Pixel Massager]

This has been obsessing me all day. Even got out some toy furniture and cast shadows with a flashlight. Found out there is no easy one-click way to do this.
Here's one more try with a different approach - using the process in this video:

I came up with this version - lot of distortion in play:

View attachment 123347

I laughed-out-loud at your being obsessed over this, JeffK! Funny!

Appreciate your efforts.

Thanks for the Youtube video share, too.

 

[JeffK]

I laughed-out-loud at your being obsessed over this, JeffK! Funny!
Appreciate your efforts.
Thanks for the Youtube video share, too.

My obsessiveness has been a problem for many people from grade school on up. It's also how I ended up marrying the woman I've spent the last 40 years with.

The obsession is not so much getting the job done, but understanding how it works. That's what was eating at me. The chair and the flashlight happened to be a great metaphor.

In Photoshop, when creating a drop shadow by duplicating and distorting a layer, we're only working in a single plane with a single object with single pivot points. So when we distort the table shadow, the legs pull away. The question was how to keep those shadow legs pinned to the bottom. Breaking it into separate parts was the only way I ended up understanding how it could be done.

I'm sure if someone who had the experience and patience, it probably could be achieved in puppet warp. But I don't have either of those qualities. So what it ended up as was a drawing question - if I was working in pencil, how would I draw the leg shadows. The way to do that is to start at the bottom of each leg separately and draw up to the table top following the path of the sun/lamplight.

I realize I'm obsessing again. But that's what fascinates me about Photoshop. It's constantly throwing problems of aesthetics and dimension at you. Solving them is the frustrating and fun parts.

Sorry if I go on too long, This was actually a fun exercise - and the samples you provided above are stunning. You did great work! If I did help in any way, then it made all my efforts worthwhile!

- Jeff

 

[Pixel Massager]

Obsessive or not, Jeff, it was your kindness in taking the time to try and help that impressed me, and you did help.
Obsessiveness, which we all have to one degree or another, can serve us if we allow it to, and that's what you did here.

Congrats on 40 years of wedded bliss... to you and your wife... and to you and Photoshop!

Thanks again!

Scott

 

[Argos]

About the main question, Jeff already told everything so..

Creating realistic shadows its always a nightmare
My advice/opinion would be:

1 if you can choose go for soft shadowing,, hard shadows are extremely hard to make realistic
2 try to find similar examples so you can see what you need to do.
3 I find usefull if it is an object in a void, to place that object on background where the light match the direction you want the shadow, so you can have a better idea if it works, if it looks realistic etc.

I started making the example, going for the basics



Then i start to asking what if's or maybes and trying things and i had to stop or it could be an entire day searching for examples and trying things XD.

 

[Pixel Massager]

Well done, Argos... I especially like your first example— I think it looks very realistic.
Thank you for taking the time to experiment with this... I really appreciate it.

 

[JeffK]

@Argos made me do it...

 

[Pixel Massager]

Nice one, Jeff!

 

[Argos]

Nice Jeff! But carefull because shadows floor to wall, is another kind of monster