Adobe CS4

If you have any type of object drawing, i.e., circle, square, rectangle etc., nothing gives it a nice affect than the drop shadow. It makes the object appear as if it was floating off your computer monitor. Here is how you add a dropshadow to an object in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

1. Launch Adobe Photoshop CS4 and open a new project. I selected “web” for my preset to give me enough room for this tutorial. However, you can choose whatever you wish as the steps are the same.
2.
Step 2

Select one of the object drawing tools from your tools panel. For this tutorial I selected the “rounded rectangle tool” as shown in the picture associated with this step.
3.
Step 3

Draw your object onto the stage. I selected a white fill color with a dark border to make my object standout when I go to add my dropshadow in the next step. You will also notice that Adobe Photoshop CS4 automatically creates a new layer for you and places you object on that layer.
4.
Step 4

In the layers panel you will notice an icon that says “fx”. Click that icon and on the menu that pops up, choose “Drop Shadow”.
5.
Step 5

The layer style window will appear. Make sure the checkbox next to Drop Shadow is checked on. You can alter the drop shadow with the properties located under the “Drop Shadow” -> “Structure” frames to the right of the checkbox.