Hi,
I tried searching the forums for the answer, but nobody seemed to need the thing I do. The thing is, in my work there's a repetitive task of extracting objects/products photographed on white seamless background in such a manner to save its shadow separately. So extracting the object in AP is as easy as in PS, but how to select the shadow so I can then place the object with its natural shadow on a different background?
The method I use in PS is to CMD click the RGB channel icon to select the image highlights, then CMD+I to invert the selection (to select the shadows), then I create a new layer and fill it with black which gives me only the shadows in the image, but they sit in a separate translucent layer, so I can place this shadow on any background in future. Then I cut out just the object/product, and have it on a separate layer above the shadow, with full color and opacity. This way I can place the object with its shadow wherever I need, be it a color background, a gradient, a texture – doesn't matter because the object is opaque and the shadow is semi-transparent and falls off naturally.
I know AP is different from PS and I don't really want to do this the same way, just to get the same result. How do I do it?
Thanks a lot in advance :)