Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
If you're building a slide show on a light background, or on a photo background,
you can add a drop shadow behind your image to help it stand out from the
background. You also have the option of adding a stroke to your images.
While most of the built-in templates already have these features turned on,
here we'll look at how to add them and how to make adjustments to both.
Step One:
To add a drop shadow, go the Options panel
in the right side Panels area, and turn on the
Cast Shadow checkbox. Most of the built-in
templates, like Caption and Rating (shown
here), already have the drop shadow feature
turned on. The two controls you'll probably
use the most are Opacity (how dark your
drop shadow appears), and Radius (which
controls how soft your drop shadow is. Why
don't they call it “Softness?” Be
cause that
would be too obvious and easy [wink]). The
Offset setting controls how far the shadow
appears from the photo, so if you want it
to look like your photo is higher off the
background, increase the Offset amount.
The Angle setting determines where the light
is coming from, and by default, it positions
your shadow down and to the right.
Step Two:
Let's tweak the drop shadow a bit: lower
the Opacity amount to 18%, so it's lighter,
then increase the Offset amount to 100%,
so it looks like the photo is an inch or two
off the background. Next, lower the Radius
to 48%, so it's not quite as soft, and lastly,
set the Angle to -41°, just to tweak its posi-
tion a bit. Turning on the Stroke Border
checkbox (at the top of the Options panel)
puts a color stroke around your image. In
this built-in template (and a couple of the
others), the stroke is already on, but it's
white and only 1-pixel thick, so you can
hardly see it. To change the color, click on
the color swatch, then choose a new color
from the color picker (I chose black here).
To make the stroke thicker, drag the Width
slider to the right (I dragged mine to 12 px).
