One shadow layer doesn’t quite cut
it. You might have noticed that the shadow layer
that creates a good shadow on the skin tone
doesn’t produce anything very noticeable
on darker areas. I usually end up creating at
least three shadow layers – one for the
skin and other light areas, one that’ll
make a noticeable difference over a fairly dark
colour, and another that’s somewhere in-between.
The skin tone I give a much greater saturation,
as it generally looks more warm, vibrant, and
healthy. Those three layers will generally be
sufficient.
In this example image, I’ve actually
used four shadow layers. One is strictly for
the skin. Another is a general mid-range shadow
layer. The third is dark enough to make shadows
on the boots and other dark-red areas. And the
fourth shadow layer I’ve used for the
light-beige objects such as her neck-thing and
sleeve-things. For them I wanted to shift the
hue of the shadow over to blue. I think it looks
better like that. Of course, this is the sort
of easy experimentation that Adjustment Layers
make possible.
For polish, I went in and lightened some of
the right-hand edges of the shadows. What this
does is enhance the contrast between the left-hand
border of the shadow and the regular base colour.
Also, it gives a hint of back-lighting, thus
enhancing the 3-Dimensionality of the image.
Here’s how:
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