What's new
Photoshop Gurus Forum

Welcome to Photoshop Gurus forum. Register a free account today to become a member! It's completely free. Once signed in, you'll enjoy an ad-free experience and be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Convert image of a person into a shadow


joshhazel

New Member
Messages
2
Likes
0
I am working on a book cover and will have a sorcerer vs his shadow on the cover. After placing the sorcerer onto the page and copy pasting and flipping it I now have two facing each other.

What is the best way to turn the general shape of the second sorcerer into a shadowy figure? The simplest method would be appreciated I am just now learning Photoshop.

Thanks
 

dv8_fx

Retired Administrator
Messages
13,761
Likes
4,789
Dunno what effect you may like... but may depend on your background and figure...

Create a duplicate of the second image and use Jessicayla's linked tutorial to convert the figure cutout to a shadow.

Shadowy Figure.jpg

Duplicate the image for backup and hide. Apply a slight Gaussian Blur on the shadow figure . Delete sections of the shadow to bring out detail from the original image with Eraser tool set at airbrush mode and soft pressure.

In my example, I duplicated the eyes and moved on top of the shadow layer and increased the saturation and lightness for effect. You may even add a glow to it if it suits your image work..

Just my suggestions for your reference.
 

AbdulW87

Power User
Messages
248
Likes
78
if you want the sorcerers shadow to be transparent like what i would do is choose the image which i want to turn to shadow, go to image>adjustments>levels and darken the image completely and then change the layer opacity to get where i want. but i haven't tried this ever i just read your post and thought this method might be the easiest.

EDIT: made this using 50% opacity

versus.jpg
 
Last edited:

joshhazel

New Member
Messages
2
Likes
0
if you want the sorcerers shadow to be transparent like what i would do is choose the image which i want to turn to shadow, go to image>adjustments>levels and darken the image completely and then change the layer opacity to get where i want. but i haven't tried this ever i just read your post and thought this method might be the easiest.

EDIT: made this using 50% opacity

View attachment 17668

I tried this, got the level to black, then when i change opacity to 50% It ended up showing the colors again
 

AbdulW87

Power User
Messages
248
Likes
78
I tried this, got the level to black, then when i change opacity to 50% It ended up showing the colors again

ended up showing colors by that you mean colors thru the shadow right. if the background is colored decreasing the opacity will make the object translucent. the background color will show thru it.

but if you are saying that the colors of the render return thats weird.

it would be helpful if you can share the picture.

EDIT: tried with colored BG and this is what i get

shadow.jpg
 

Attachments

  • shadow.jpg
    shadow.jpg
    75.9 KB · Views: 1
Last edited:

Top