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The image still looks flat and we don’t want that. We can go into endless retouching hours trying to give some curved perspective to the sides of the paper texture, but eventually it will look unrealistic. All we have to do is to add an extremely subtle drop shadow and a couple of brush strokes.
There is something that we should be aware. This kind of 2D representation, has a 3D appearance due to the clever shading applied. But it is by no means a real shading. This shading is done in a way to trick our brain. And our brain responds with a 3D comprehension of that image.
So, in the next step I will show you how to add shadows to give more relief to the paper texture.
Select the PAPER TEXTURE layer. Go to the Layer Styles menu and select DROP SHADOW layer style. Check the image on the right to see the setting we will be using in this example. It is important to note that it is better to uncheck the USE GLOBAL LIGHT setting to keep this drop shadow independent from other shadows that you may apply later.
These settings are applied according to the scale of the image we are working on now. For greater resolutions you will have to increase these values. Notice that the SIZE of the shadow (7px) is greater than the DISTANCE (2px). The shadow will appear with more strength on the right and bottom sides, but still showing a little shadow on the top and left sides of the paper texture to cut it out from the background.
Set the OPACITY to a very low value and SPREAD to 0. This will make the shadow really subtle.
Select the BRUSH TOOL.
Set a brush tip of DIAMETER: 300px and HARDNESS: 80%.
This settings should be changed according to the size of the image.
In this case we need a slightly curved shadow so that’s why we have to use a brush tip diameter so large. The hardness was set according to the size of the brush tip.
Create a new layer below the PAPER TEXTURE layer and name it SHADOWS.
Select this layer and proceed with the rest of the tutorial.
Now make a selection that masks one side of the image. The selection should be adjacent and should not superimpose the paper texture. The image below shows how the selection should be done. If you are an advanced Photoshop user, you can mask that area the way you like. This is just one way of doing it (and easier to explain than using layer masks).
With the brush tool selected, make just one click on the masked area just like the image below shows:
After that, repeat the same procedure on each third (folds) of the paper texture. Then, select the left side and, again, repeat the brush clicks on each fold. When finished, adjust the SHADOWS layer OPACITY to 30% or so.
The final result should be something like the following image:
Notice the little perturbations in the drop shadow of the paper texture. This is not a real shadow projection. It is just a visual illusion just to trick the eye.
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