how is the curved shadow effect here done, i’ve tried playing around with dropshadow in PS but can figure it out.
which version of PS are you using?
CS2
You can do that with the airbrush tool.
yeah, airbrush can work.
another option if you want a perfect geometric curve is to do this:
- make a selection with the oval tool that’s really tall and skinny.
- blur it however much you like
- select half of it (rectangular marquee) and move it to the other side… so each half of the oval becomes one of the shadows, with a hard inner edge.
hope that’s clear enough 
Good tips!
With working with shadows don’t forget the ever popular (yuk,yuk) “burn” tool. Of course it only works in certain cases.
When making pipes, etc. I use the burn tool to get that shadow look to make it more 3D.
Copy the layer first because the only way you can take it back is through the history palette. (or a snapshot).
Also, in CS2 we have that great tool “Warp” so we can select the object, copy it to another layer and play around with it.
Also, you can lock the transparency and use “color” mode.
