How do I remove color in isolated shadows and create transparency

[jtsuth]

I have an image of a product that was photographed on a green background that I am trying to separate from the background with the shadows kept intact but the shadows have the same green color in them as the background and look awful. The problem is the product itself also has green in it so I can't simply use color range to choose the green to get rid of and I also need the shadows to be transparent for whatever background they go against. Is there a semi straightforward way to remove a color cast from a shadow and to make the shadow transparent so it looks natural against any color background it's placed on?

I have included both the original photo to show the color of the background as well as a close up of how the shadow looks when placed on a different color background. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[lambiloon]

Hi check the following video hope it helps you...regards

https://youtu.be/qiLGtfm3vMw

[Theresa J]

To do a professional job separating the background I would outline the subject with the pen tool and then use the path outline to mask the subject. Duplicate the image layer without the mask to create the dropshadow and remove all of the color by desaturating it.

[Earth Oliver]

Close, but that doesn't create transparent shadows. They'll need to use the channel trick for that...

[Theresa J]

Or set the shadow layer to the multiply blend mode. This works great if the image and shadow will be composited with another image in Photoshop.

[jtsuth]

I'll take a look at the multiply option as another step to what I followed in this video here. Thank you for the information. https://youtu.be/5iUMLvx8H8Q

[Earth Oliver · Accepted solution]

Here's the basic process you'll need to use for creating transparent shadows:

https://youtu.be/0KftDzvvNfQ