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Voss6371140

: How can I reverse engineer drop shadow to reproduce the same effect on another image? I have the following image that is displayed in along similar images. Each image links to a tourism brochure.

@Voss6371140

Posted in: #HowTo #PaintNet

I have the following image that is displayed in along similar images. Each image links to a tourism brochure. I've been tasked into adding a new brochure with its own image.



Each image features some drop shadow effect that I need to reproduce on the new image, but I do not know what drop shadow settings has been used to create the original drop shadow.



What steps are required to obtain the data needed to reproduce the drop shadow? I need to know the original color, radius and blur.

Is it possible or should I just try trial and error?

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@Nickens508

I believe you're stuck with trial and error. Depending on the complexity of the shadow, it might not be so bad.

Here's how I usually do it (in Photoshop, but the steps should be similar for other programs)...


Duplicate the layer with the shadow that needs to be reproduced.
Mask the upper layer so that you are looking at an image comprised of both layers.
On the lower layer, remove the shadow so you just have your base image.
Fiddle with shadows on the lower layer until you can't tell where the upper layer ends and the lower layer begins.


It tends to look something like the following:

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@Sims5801359

Unless you can get a source file which contains this information, or get the original designer to give you the parameters, then you'll need to use trial and error.

However I'm not sure Paint.NET is the tool for the job, as it doesn't seem to support drop-shadows out of the box.

Also, the effects it does have are static rather than dynamic, i.e. you generate them anew each time rather than manipulate their parameters, as you would in Photoshop.

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