Tutorial: Overlapping Drop Shadows Only

Hi there! If you've ever worked with one of my word art clusters or Thao's clusters, you know that we only include the overlapping drop shadows between the layers and not the outside drop shadows. This is so you can use the drop shadow that works for you (your direction, darkness, etc!). So I thought I would write this tutorial for anyone who is on Creative Teams and making clusters to share with others! It's a great idea to only include the overlapping drop shadows when making cluster freebies. And it's very simple to do!

Step 1: Add drop shadows to your liking to each layer of your cluster.



Step 2: Now select all the layers and duplicate them. Then, with all the duplicated layers still selected, clear their layer styles (clears their drop shadows).



Step 3: Merge all the duplicated layers (without drop shadows) together into one layer. Then, merge all the shadowed layers together. You should have two layers now, the layer with the unshadowed cluster merged together, and the layer with the shadowed cluster merged together.

Step 4: Now, put the shadowed layer on the top of the unshadowed cluster, and create a clipping mask of it onto the unshadowed cluster.



And voila! You have a cluster with all the drop shadows of the elements on top of each other, without any outer drop shadows.



Now, I have to admit something. I don't go through this process every time. I use an action! It's just so much quicker for me and I love it! I use Wendy Zine's Hide Shadows Action. hehe But if you're good at making actions in PS, maybe you could make your own from these instructions!  

Hope you found this tutorial helpful!! have fun!