(think Moon shadow, moon shadow)
I wanted to make the site look just a weeeeee bit better. And a dropshadow on the images seemed to be the way to go.
Search the web… uhhhh, that isn’t easy.
Let’s see what Pixelmator can do… uhhhh, that isn’t any easier!
Sigh, let’s fire up Photoshop and flail away.
D’oh! My image is locked, why oh why! More searching… one of two solutions, double click on the layer then click OK or make sure the image is RGB not Indexed. Sigh. That was 30 minutes.
Ok, I think I understand… apply the layer Dropshadow to the image. NOPE! Ain’t happening. Maybe, just maybe I need to make sure my Canvas Size is bigger than my image. D’OH! Yes, that works and it looks quite nice, if I may say so myself.
So my work flow is this:
- Open the file and make sure it isn’t locked, either by double clicking on the layer or by ensuring its mode is RGB (as compared to Indexed)
- For a 160×120 image, make the Canvas Size about 20px greater on each side. For larger images, then a larger border will be required.
- Add a Dropshadow layer, then mess with the params until it looks like what you want. In this case, once I had my first one that looked good, I saved the Style as WRP (then just clicked on this Style for step 3 on subsequent photos).
- Flatten image
- Save as a new jpg
Voila! A much better looking site!