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I'm starting with the same rose I used in previous tutorials and have added a hummingbird element. The hummingbird was masked and the background was discarded.
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Duplicate the item that will cast the shadow by pressing command J on the layer that has the image. You want 2 copies.
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Move layer copy 2 under layer 2 by dragging the layer.
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Ensure copy 2 is active by clicking on the layer. Go to images->adjustments->desaturate. You will now have a grey-scale image.
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Images->adjustments->hue/saturation. Move the lightness slider to black and the image will become a black silhouette.
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Shift the shadow layer so that it is slightly askew from the original image. Don't worry about the position being perfect.
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Change the opacity of the shadow. I did this one 50%. You notice it's still black, only transparent. Shadows contain color so having color in your shadow will make it more realistic.
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Choose a color with the eyedropper. I used a darker brown on the hummingbird.
Press shift delete for fill. Check preserve transparency and change the blending mode to multiply.
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You'll see the shadow has a brownish cast.
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You'll want to convert layer 2 to a smart object so that it's easier to make changes later if you choose to.
Layer->smart object->convert to smart object.
Note how the layer 2 image has changed.
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Press command T to bring up the bounding box. Shadows are not perfect replicas of the original so you are going to want to skew it.
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Command click and drag to move the bounding box to make the shadow the shape you want. Click the check mark on top to accept the changes. Command T will bring back the bounding box if you want to make changes thanks to "smart object".
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I added a slight Gaussian blur to soften the edges of the shadow.
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Ta Da!
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