Shadow Time

Recently, we attempted a shadow tutorial for Photoshop. We were to extract an image, remove the pixel fringe, then create a shadow for it on a landscape that it was not originally matched to. So, I chose a chipmunk as my shadow model. With a mirrored and skewed image of the chipmunk overlaid behind, I tweaked it's shadow to match the background.

The trick? Gradient overlay! How did that work? We'll get there in a moment! If we take it one task at a time, then we truly start by removing the chipmunk from it's habitat. Using the refine radius tool (Which is good at selecting fur and thin parts of a selection) I got a relatively clean, transparent clip

 Now for that tricky overlay! If we take the chipmunk, copy him, and skew him off to the side, it looks more like a mirror than a shadow, doesn't it? But, here's where the gradient overlay come sin to play!

An overlay layers a color, gradient, or image over a layer. So, if the shadow chipmunk is a layer, I can layer a black to BG gradient over it, and the result is...

A Shadow!