Part two of the Apple iHome project focuses on furniture placement and building light + shadow.
2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit fresher.
Steps
- Drop the room’s furniture (sofa, table, lamp) into individual layer groups. Stick to Apple’s language: matte white, light wood, pale gray.
- Build each item’s floor shadow: new layer beneath the object, black soft brush at 40% opacity, then Filter > Blur > Motion Blur for a horizontal smear.
- Pick a single main light (say, window from top-left). Every object’s highlight goes top-left, shadow bottom-right.
- New layer + soft white brush (Screen mode, 30%) to imply window light spill.
- Place each Apple device’s screen content as a Smart Object — easy to swap later.
What’s Next
Part 3 adds extra detail (glow, particles, plants); Part 4 wraps the color grading and final retouch.
Note: Lesson 25 of this series isn’t preserved on the Wayback Machine — only Part 4 (Lesson 26) is. We’ll publish that one shortly as a closing post.
