I have a few sets of shadow styles that I like to use from different designers here at the 'Pad. They are all shadowed in different directions, though, so I find myself having to change them to match (I like 45 degree shadows for some reason). Is there a quick way to edit the actual style itself- not just the style applied to a particular element? Right now the only way I've found is to apply the style to an element, modify the direction, and then save it as a "new" style. I also noticed that Mommyish's shadow styles are set to use Photoshop's Global Light setting. I'm tempted to just edit all of my other shadow styles to also use do this, but wanted to see if there was some reason I shouldn't? Various shadowing tutorials differ as to whether or not Global Light should be used, so I wanted to check in and see what the consensus was at the 'Pad.
I shadow using the shadows in my photos (if they are obvious) so will apply the style, and then change accordingly, but I'm a bit obscure and have been known to separate my shadow, then add a shadow to it...lol
I use global light and just go in and untick the box if I want a different angle on a particular thing. I've never run into any problems doing this.
I've had the same problem with some of the styles that i use all the time, so I finally just went in and clicked use global and then saved new versions of them. That was about a year ago and I haven't run into any time where I regretted it. Also, I have the original styles saved somewhere, so I could go back if I need to.
I have never thought about making shadows go the same direction they are in the photos! Thanks, Lorry! I was wondering why some tutorials said not to use Global Light- that didn't make any sense to me. This is what I ended up doing last night. I use four different sets of shadow styles and just choose the one that looks best for the particular page/element, so I like to have them all available. It took a while to slog through them all, but they all now use Global Light and are named/arranged such that all the styles for a particular type of element are together- and you can bet I saved that set!!!
And I just have to figure out how to add styles and use them! I know Scrapping With Liz templates use global lighting!
This makes you my hero for the day! I need to go in and do this, it's one of the things I looked forward to with CC, but I haven't looked up the instructions yet. So, in case you missed it: You are awesome!!
The only time you wouldn't want to use Global Light is if the change effects the altitude of the style. (this is more important with styles using bevels) It can make a style go from looking amazingly glossy to very dull and bleh. I learned this over time when I couldn't figure out why a style would look one way to me (my global light setting) and another way to someone else! The good news is you can easily edit in CC... the bad news is - you can't easily edit in PSE.
Aww, thank you! It wasn't very hard to edit the styles, just tedious because you have to actually apply it to something, make the change where it was applied to use Global Light, and then save the style again as a new style. I'm so glad I did it, though- I've been using them for the last few days, and it's so much easier to find what I need now!
I personally don’t use global light. While I shadow almost everything at 120 degrees, some things need tweaking, and global light overrides my tweaks. Also, the location of some items can sometimes make them not look shadowed at all if everything is global. I do have an action that will add a 360-degree shadow because that is sometimes needed in this situation. I separate and warp/blur my shadows a lot (not on everything but A LOT), but I’m probably too picky.
