I’m looking for a technique to avoid drop shadows on individual elements darkening each other out (multiplying the effect of the drop shadow).
This is an image showing the undesired effect I’m talking about (also enlarged at the bottom of the image). I want the drop shadow on the white surface to be the same whether the shadow is from one of the elements or both “on top of each other”.
Anyone know how to achieve this fairly easily?
Answer
Combine both objects into the same layer or smart object and apply the shadow to that instead.
Update:
To keep the shadow from the top object on the bottom, in addition to the steps above, duplicate the top object with shadow, and put into a layergroup. Now apply the lower object as a layer mask to that layer group (set that area white on black background in layer mask). This will limit the shadow and object to only the areas above the lower object.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : AndroidHustle , Answer Author : John