HOW TO ISOLATE A SUBJECT AND
ADD A COLORED, OFFSET SHADOW
Trendy graphic treatments on websites and in newsletters are both visually interesting and fun
to deconstruct. In this column, you’ll learn core Photoshop skills as you re-create a technique Fast
Company regularly employs to isolate a black-and-white subject, give it a colorful new background,
and then add a brightly colored shadow that you can offset in any direction.Step One: Start by opening a photo in Photo-
shop. If you’d like to download the low-res water-
marked version of this image to follow along, click
this link, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the
Save to Library button. Double-click the image in
the Libraries panel (Window>Libraries) to open it
in Photoshop. To make it easier to work with the
image, increase the resolution of the practice file.
(We normally don’t recommend enlarging images,
but this is only for practice purposes.) Go to
Image>Image Size, turn on the Resample check-
box, select Preserve Details 2.0 from the Resample
drop-down menu, set the Width to 2,400 pixels,
and click OK.
Turn the photo into a black-and-white image
using the method of your choice. If you’re start-
ing in Lightroom, use the HSL/Grayscale panel to
create a nice, contrasty black-and-white image. In
Photoshop, we’ll use a Gradient Map adjustment
layer, which produces a high-contrast black-and-
white right out of the gate.
Because a Gradient Map adjustment layer
uses the color chips at the bottom of your
Toolbar (circled), start by setting them to the
default of black and white by pressing the D
key on your keyboard.Step Two: In Photoshop, choose Layer>New Adjust-
ment Layer>Gradient Map, or click the half-black/
half-white circle at the bottom of your Layers panel
(circled) and choose Gradient Map. Either way,
Photoshop adds the adjustment layer and remaps
the shadows in your image to your Foreground
color chip (black) and the highlights to the Back-
ground color chip (white).©Adobe Stock/PhotoboykoLESASNIDER
Beginners’ Workshop
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