[CS2, CS3] Drop shadow exceeds picture frame

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Hi there,

maybe this is a well known effect, if not for myself ...

If you apply a drop shadow to a placed image that has a clipping mask active, you may end up with a shadow area that falls inside the image’s picture frame as well as outside of it.

This is OK up to a certain point — but what if I have to crop the image on one side or the other? The shadow may exceed the picture frame now where I actually want it to be cut. [Hopefully I am making myself sufficiently clear ...]

So is there some option connected to the drop shadow feature to restrict the shadow to the inside of the picture frame?

Thanks —
Klaus

[D***@adobeforums.com]

Klaus,
Use the Direct Selection (white arrow) to select the object with the clipping path (and therefore the clipping path) and apply the drop shadow. This will apply to the object. If you use the selection tool (black arrow) and select the frame, it will apply a drop shadow to the clipped object, but outside of the frame as well as inside.

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Thanks, David. Another one of those things that are just too obvious, once you get to know the knack ;-)

Klaus

[j***@adobeforums.com]

I have experienced similar issues both with clipping paths and with drop shadows. I teach a class for Indesign and an image in one particular exercise I use has a clipping path around a head+shoulders shot of a woman. The path is a P'shop path created from an alpha channel.

In InDesign the image is on top of a tint background which is on a separate layer. The clipping path is not clipping the full image but is leaving a fine, white, unclipped border around the image area (may be only a single row/column of pixels all the way around). As the clipped image has a drop shadow applied in exactly the way David describes, the drop shadow is also applied to these "unclipped" pixels around the edges.

I confess that, as this is just an exercise and has never gone to print, I had not noticed this. One of my students did notice it because he had experienced the same problem in preparing a print job and it had cost his company a fair amount of money to correct it.

John