Welcome!

[mrogers004]

whitehouse.gov uses a line shadow effect to separate the title from the body in the featurette on the left side of the page. I have tried replicating this with the gradient tool and the marquee tool, but can't get it to look nearly as good. Any help with this would be appreciated.

[falkencreative]

I'm not sure there is much we can do to help you here... Using the gradient and marquee tool is the way to do it.

[mrogers004]

Thanks for your response. Thats what I thought, but there must be other steps b/c the effect seems to either fade of decrease in height as you approach the edges. SOrry if I seem dense, I am new to this.

[falkencreative]

Try this...

Very quick screencast showing the steps: http://vimeo.com/6772612

-- Use the Elliptical Marquee tool to select a circular area
-- Fill it with a light gray/whatever color
-- Use a Gaussian blur to blur the edges
-- Either delete part of the layer, or hide it using a layer mask

[mrogers004]

Thank you so much man. That worked perfectly.

[falkencreative]

Glad to help.

[Andy]

Use a Gaussian blur to blur the edges

For future reference: You could change the 'feather' property on the Elliptical Marquee Tool instead.

[falkencreative]

Use a Gaussian blur to blur the edges

For future reference: You could change the 'feather' property on the Elliptical Marquee Tool instead.

Good point. Photoshop does provide a lot of different ways to do the same thing.