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I am wondering how to have 2 different directional dropshadows in the one file with photoshop.

ie 2 different type layers - one has a dropshadow at 90 degrees, the other at -45 degrees.

Currently it seems photoshop only lets me have 1 universal direction for the whole file, which I find really pointless.

I know how to apply different dropshadows and merge down layers to achieve the same thing, but its tedious and not exactly streamlined for making future changes to that layer.

How is this achieved?

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if i have one layer, & i would like to drop shadow for a certain element in that layer, how is that possible? – user9697 Feb 3 at 3:55

3 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

When you are setting the drop shadow effect on an layer, uncheck the "Use Global Light" checkbox.

enter image description here

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How is it possible I've never seen this??? :) – cosmicbdog Nov 17 '11 at 8:15
up vote 4 down vote

Uncheck the "Use Global Light" checkbox in the Drop Shadow dialog. If it's checked, then any change you make will be reflected in any other drop shadow, bevel and emboss, satin, etc. that has it checked.

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up vote 0 down vote

If you have plenty of layers and these two types of shadow you could manage it with smart objects, each object has its own global shadow setting.

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