Do you want to design an attractive box for your product? With
Photoshop, you can easily create one, just like this:
- Start Photoshop and create a new document by typing CTRL+N. To
have plenty of space to work with, for "Name:" enter ProductBox,
"Width:" enter 600, for "Height:" enter 600, "Resolution:" enter
72, and "Background Contents:" enter White. Click "OK."

- Add the front and side of the Box.
- Create a front and side for the product box as separate
documents, or open the front and side images downloaded from the
"Things You'll Need" section below. For this How-to, the images
being used are the downloaded images. If you want to create your
own front and side, download the images from below and use them as
a starting point for your own images.
- Activate the product_box_front document by clicking its
toolbar. Type CTRL+A to select the entire document, and then CTRL+C
to copy the contents of the document.
- Activate the ProductBox document we just created by clicking
its toolbar. Type CTRL+V to paste the front of the box into the
document.
- Activate the product_box_side document by clicking its
toolbar. Type CTRL+A to select the entire document, and then CTRL+C
to copy the contents of the document.
- Activate the ProductBox document we created, and type CTRL+V to
paste the side of the box into the document. You can now close the
front and side of the box documents, you don't need them
anymore.
- Our new ProductBox document should look something like
this:

- Notice the front and the side of the box are sitting on top of
each other. We're going to fix that.
- Align the front and side. Now we are going to move the front
and side of the box in place, and then distort them to give the box
a 3D look.
- Give the layers some names. In the Layers Palette, right click
the layer that contains the front of our box and select Layer
Properties. Change Name: to Front. Now do the
same for the layer that contains the side of our box, and change
the name to Side.
- Click on the Front layer in the Layers Palette. Type V to make
sure the Move tool is open. Inside the document, drag and move the
front of our box to the right till the front is nearly to the edge
of the document.
- Click on the Side layer in the Layers Palette. Inside the
document, drag the side of the box till it's lined up with the left
edge of the front of the box. Your document should now look like
this:

- If the two layers are lined up correctly, then the front and
the side should look like one flat image.
- Making sure the Side layer is selected in the Layers Palette,
click
Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast.
Set the Brightness to -20. Since the light is supposed to be
striking the product box from the front, the side of the box should
be a bit darker than the front.

- Distort the front and side. This is the tricky part. We need to
distort the front and the side of the box using the Distort
tool.
- Click the Front layer in the Layers Palette. Now click
Edit>Transform>Distort. This creates a
distort box around the front of the box. Grab the square handle on
the top right corner, and drag it down about 150 pixels.
- Grab the square handle on the bottom right corner, and drag it
up about 150 pixels.
- Grab the square handle on the center right side, and drag it in
about 200 pixels. Make sure the right side of the front is
straight. Adjust the corner handles a little bit to straighten out
the side if you need to. Now hit ENTER to confirm the distortion.
Your document should now look like this:

- If your image doesn't look pretty close to this, distort the
image more until you achieve the right effect.
- Now we need to distort the side of the box. Click the Side
layer in the Layers Palette. Click
Edit>Transform>Distort. This creates the
same kind of distort box around the side.
- Grab the upper left corner square handle, and drag it down
about 75 pixels. Now grab the bottom left corner square handle, and
drag it up about 75 pixels. We don't want the box to look as deep
as it does, so grab the left center side handle and drag it in
about 150 pixels. Hit ENTER to confirm the distortion. Your
image should now look like this:

- If your image doesn't look pretty close to this, distort the
side a bit more until you achieve the right effect.
- Move the box.
- Click the Front layer in the Layers Palette. We want to link
the Front and Side layer, so that if you move one, they both move.
So click the small box next to the layer name on the Side
layer.

- This shows a little "chain link" in the box. This means the two
layers are linked together.
- Now when we move the Front layer, the Side layer follows with
it. Using the move tool (V), move the box up into the right hand
corner of the document. Your document should now look like
this:

- If your document doesnt look pretty close to this, move the box
a bit more until you get the right position.
- Add a box shadow to the document.
- Click and hold down the left mouse button on the Front layer,
and drag the layer down to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the
Layers Palette.This creates a copy of the Front layer named Front
Copy.

- Click
Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Set
"Lightness" to -100.

- Click "OK." This makes your Front Copy layer completely black.
Now move the Front Copy layer below the Front layer. Do this by
left clicking and holding down the Front Copy layer, and drag it
below the Front layer. Now you can't see the Front Copy layer
because its behind the Front layer. Right click the Front Copy
layer and select "Layer Properties." Rename this layer to "Box
Shadow."
- With the Box Shadow layer selected, click
"Edit">"Transform">"Distort". We are going to distort this
layer so that it looks like a shadow being cast behind the box.
Drag the top left corner handle down until its level with the side
of the box. Now drag the top right corner square handle until the
back of the Box Shadow layer is running at the same angle as the
bottom of the box. Now drag the bottom right corner handle until it
meets the bottom right corner of the box. Make any adjustments to
the corners until it looks "right". Hit ENTER to confirm the
distortion. Your image should now look like this:

- Now our box has a shadow, but that doesn't look right. We need
to make some minor adjustments.
- Click Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur.
Set "Radius" to 10.

- Click "OK."
- In the Layers Palette, make sure the Box Shadow layer is
selected, and set the Opacity to 50%.

- Fix the fact that the document is much bigger than the box.
Crop the document just a bit until its just as big as the product
box.
- Type C to open the Crop tool. This tool works a bit like the
Square Marquee tool. Draw a box around the entire product box
including the shadow. You should now see a dark area around the
image, with the inside light box being just as big as the product
box and shadow.

- You can adjust the size of the crop by dragging the square
handles in and out. Once you are satisfied, hit ENTER to confirm
the crop.
- That's it, you're done! Your final image should look something
like this:

- You can click Image>Image Size, to adjust the
size of the image. Right now our image is about 600x500 pixels. If
you're going to put this image on a website, you're going to want
the image to be about 400x330.
[edit]
Things You'll Need
- Adobe Photoshop 7 or 8 (CS) or 9 (CS2) or 10 (CS3)
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