Shadows are created in various shapes and sizes. You can play with it to create an amusing blend of objects forming a remarkable artwork! There are instances when object casting shadow is hidden. There are also times when you have to make them visible to scene.

Drop shadow, a distinct type of shadow, has identical shape of object casting it. The distance of object and path of light source resolve position of shadow. Layer Styles allows you to add a drop shadow to layers. It can be controlled in many ways.

To position shadow, adjust Angle field’s value in Structure of dialog box. The distance verifies how far shadow will fall. The Spread field works like Hardness feature of Brushes - intensify percentage to yield a harder edge. To set size of shadow, click on Size field. To set its shape, choose Contour field. You can also click on Contour icon to bring up Contour Editor – with it you can set your own parameters.

To set a noise level for your shadow, click on Noise field. When you click on Add Noise filter, it applies noise to layer. In Layer Style dialog box, you can find Blending Options. In General Blending section, you can set opacity. After that, go to Advanced Blending section and see Fill Opacity setting. This allows you to lower opacity without changing style effects.

To be properly guided you can view rubylith by toggling "|" key or going on channels palette onto layer mask channel. Click eye on and off. For beginners, rubylith will teach you right thing to do. To bring back your original pixels on layer mask, select white but you can use any level of grey in between.

To practice with blending images, what you are advised to do is take a picture of a subject and drag it over to different backgrounds like sunset, beach or other significant backgrounds. Make a good layer mask to cover rough edges and put blending mode on screen, lighten or overlay. You can use layer masking if you did not make selections beforehand. You can also use star gradient tool to create starburst effect.

Open your mind to other possibilities and enjoy blending power of Photoshop!