Photoshop Advanced Drop Shadow Actions

In this post, I’ll be providing four ‘Actions’ for Photoshop that create a couple of those great looking drop shadows we see across the web now-a-days. Along with the download, I’ll provide an image displaying how each shadow looks, as well as instructions for installing and using them. The ‘Actions’ pack includes three warped shadows intended for box corners, and one shadow acting as a mid lift. If you like these actions and decide to use them, I would note that I did not alter the shadow’s opacity. This is something that I normally do while working, but it always depends on the background you are working on and what effect you are going for, so I left it at 100% to be modified as per situation.

Examples

How To Install

1. Download the RAR file
2. Open the download, and extract Shadows.atn
3. For Windows users, in the Folder Options, go to the View tab and select ‘Show hidden files, folders, or drives’ and hit Apply. Folder Options can be found in the Control Panel.
4. For Windows 7 & Vista, go to Users/[user name]/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS5/Presets/Actions.
   For Windows XP, go to Documents and Settings/[user name]/Application Data/Adobe Photoshop CS5/Presets/Actions.
   For MAC OS, go to Users/[user name]/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS5/Presets/Actions.
5. Copy Shadows.atn into the Actions folder
6. Open Photoshop or restart it if it is already open.
7. Press F9 to see the ‘Actions Panel’ and the ‘Shadows’ folder of actions. If you do not see the ‘Shadows’ folder of actions, within the Actions panel, click on the top-right drop-down menu and select ‘Load Actions…’. You should be taken to the folder in which we copied the ‘Shadow.atn’ actions file. Double-click it and the ‘Shadows’ actions set is now loaded in your Actions panel.

How To Use The Actions

To give your object one of these shadows, have the desired object selected, and then with your ‘Actions Panel’ open, select the desired shadow. With the shadow action selected, click the ‘Play Selection’ button at the bottom of the actions panel, and the shadow will be produced.