The Cowboy

[Grumpy John]

A black and white version of Saddle Up in the Artistic Expressions channel. I think that this works better.

[Toddyh]

Agree. Definitely works better than the colour.

[Isac]

Good work John. If you want some tips on how to remove the halos on the mask, let me know

[Grumpy John]

``If you want some tips on how to remove the halos on the mask, let me know.``

Yes please.

[Isac]

I'll do up a tut today for you - time permitting

[Isac]

Really good job John. I'm loving your eagerness to learn and your desire to succeed. The B&W is really good. Like you said, the shadow of the cowboy is a bit off. If you look at the horses (one of which is obviously showing off!), You'll notice that shadows are being created by the light coming from above and slightly forward. To create the same effect on the cowboy, select and copy the cowboy layer and fill with black. name it "Shadow". Hold the CTRL key and on the top left corner drag to the left and down to "squash" it. Do the same with the right top corner. Drag the Shadow layer below the cowboy layer and decrease its opacity to suit. Select both the cowboy and Shadow layers, right-click and select Link Layers. That way you can move them around to position them. I've done an edit to show the result.

[Grumpy John]

Thanks mate, always keen to learn.

[Grumpy John]

Your shadow looks a tad sharp Isac, can you soften it with Gaussian Blur?

[Isac]

Sure can. In this case though, you'll notice that the horse shadows are reasonably sharp. The sun looks as though it was pretty bright and almost overhead so elements in the foreground would have sharp shadows. If you need to blur the shadow it would only need a small amount.

[Grumpy John]

The Cowboy V2.0
Shadow corrected and horse gelded.

[Isac]

Well done mate! You're a quick learner.

[HansE]

Now how can we find this again? I am sure that this will be something I will want to do at some stage in the future.

[Isac]

Do you mean this thread Hans?

[HansE]

Yes but more specifically creating shadows

[Isac]

I have a folder "Photoholics" and anything I want to keep a link to, I just drag the link from the site address bar straight into the appropriate folder - in this case it would be the "Photoshop Tips" folder. It's always there to refer back to. You can always rename the link to something you would remember as fitting the subject.

[HansE]

Sounds like a good tip.