Make a copy of our monument layer and drag it to separate document (create one).

There we have it.

We need this to create a real shadow. OF course I’ve could painted it but it probably took me some time.

Flip the image and rotate it 180. You will get this.

Drag our flipped image. And here we have it. Now transform the image, using Distort and Skew.

And don’t forget the shadow direction.

Fill the layer with color in layer styles menu.

Create an Alpha Channel.

You should know this: the further the shadow goes from the object the more it loses contrast and blurs a little bit.

Load the selection in Select > Load selection > Alpha 1

And transform a little bit the selection.

And apply blur or blur more filter.

This Filter will five you blur in the end. But I think every stilling should be done with hand.

So shoes a nice SOFT brush, set the flow to about 5-10%, and paint a little bit with mere white.

And there we have it.

Some Adjustments and we are done here.

Today our tutorial will be about how to drop the right shadow in Photoshop and how to make a clean nice selection. This is a technical tutorial so we will get no pretty images in the end.

Let’s start by creating a document and choosing a picture sample.

Here is our sample. Tap (Q) for quick mask and begin to cover the image with mask. Quick mask uses basic PS brushes, so if you like you can set the opacity, flow, spacing and so on. I will use brush without any settings.

Now refine the edges. You can tap X to toggle cover and erase mask in Quick mask mode.

Make the edges as rough as possible.

Now tap Q again turning the Quick mask off. As you can see now you have all the area is selected except the monument. Just select inverse.

Further and Smooth the selection. Just a little bit.

Now it’s time to make a new document.

And just drag the selected image to our new document.

And here we have nice and clean edged image. If you are a graphic designer you will need this a lot of times. Remember to smooth the selection.

Now what we are going to do is to drop a shadow.

First define from where is the light coming from. But the picture is made in day time, so we have now direct lights, just the sun light. But anyway it has direction.