Drop Shadow effect
The Drop Shadow effect adds a shadow that appears behind the layer. The shape of the shadow is determined by the layer’s alpha channel.
When you add a drop shadow to a layer, a soft-edged outline of the layer’s alpha channel appears behind it, as if a shadow is cast on the background or underlying objects.
Drop Shadow can create a shadow outside the bounds of the layer. The layer’s quality setting affects the subpixel positioning of the shadow and the smoothness of the shadow’s soft edges.
This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Original (left), and with effect applied (right)
To render the shadow without the image, select Shadow Only.
Note: To apply a drop shadow to a layer that rotates, rotate the
layer using the Transform effect and then apply the Drop Shadow
effect. You can also use nesting, precomposing, or an adjustment
layer to achieve this effect. If you don’t use one of these methods,
the shadow rotates with the layer.