This is a rather easy Adobe Photoshop tutorial that produces a nice overhead perspective shadow effect. One of the best features is it's very customizable, easy to change the angle and depth of the shadow. To get started you will need to find an image that you would want to apply the effect too. Remember that this image must be taken with a overhead perspective view. It also must be rendered off it's original background perfectly, no white edges!

Ok, so if you are reading this tutorial you must be somewhat new to Photoshop. With that said if you don't know how to render a image you can use this one I used for the tutorial. But for the future you should polish up on your Pen tools, the Pen tool is great for cutting out images.

Step 1.)  Drop that shadow

The first thing we want to do is apply the start of the shadow effect we are creating. To do this simply right click on the layer your want to drop shadow (coffee cup for me) and check off Drop Shadow. Use an angle of 120°, a Distance of 6px, and a Size of 6px.

Step 2.)  Drop shadow layer

Right-click on the shadow and choose "Create Layer". This will put the drop shadow on it's own layer. This will give us more freedom to manipulate the shadow the way we want. 

Step 3.)  Looking down

This is the start of the real effect we are going for.

In the Photoshop menu click, Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur. A window will open up with a few options. Put an Angle of -43, and a Distance of 43 pixels. The distance of the pixels is how far your shadow will be cast.

Now set your shadow layer to Multiply (should be already by default), with a Opacity of 70%, and a Fill of 75%.

Step 4.)  Touch ups

You can do this a number of ways. I went with a Layer Mask. I did this because if you make a mistake you can easily fix it. Click the Layer Mask button of the bottom of the Layers Platte (F7). Set your foreground and background colors to black and white, do this quickly by pressing x then d on your keyboard.

On your Layer Mask start brushing where you do not want a shadow. I used Airbrush Soft Round 65. Remember if you make a mistake just switch back to white by pressing x on your keyboard and brush where you made the mistake. Press x again to go back to black.

Step 5.)  Optional Shading

CRTL-Click on your original image layer (on the thumbnail in the layers palette) select the layer. Create a new layer and with a smaller round brush. Brush in some shading to give it a more realistic effect.

I set this layer to 8% opacity, although it's different with each image. Just play around with it, until you get the effect you want.

Done!

Here is what our final effect should look like.

If you have any questions or need some help please post them in the comments below!

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