Okay, this has been bugging the shit out of me for ages.
Imagine a movie poster. It is a simple creation of a mere three layers.
Layer 1: - Background. This layer is plain white, has nothing on it, and is only there because I can’t be bothered to delete it. This layer is at the bottom of the pile in the Layers palette.
Layer 2 - This layer contains a JPEG file swiped off the internet. The JPEG fills the entire page. This layer is in the middle.
Layer 3 - This layer is a text layer. I have applied an orange drop shadow effect to the text in this layer. This layer is at the top.
The problem I’m having is that the picture in layer two is obscuring the drop shadow effect in layer 3. It is not, however, obscuring the text itself. I have two questions:
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How do I fix this so I can see the drop shadow effect above the JPEG on layer 2?
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How is it possible that a special effect on one layer can be obscured by the contents of the layer underneath it?
If anyone can help me with this I’d be most appreciative. Thanks.
I don’t see how it can obscure the drop shadow unless the shadow is blending with similar colors in the poster. Try raising the opacity of the shadow, or changing the shadow’s blend mode from Multiply or Screen to Normal.
In addition to the good solutions given by Gentle Robot* the drop shadow could also be too blurred. What does the shadow look like when only the text and background layers are turned on?
*: Welcome! 
Look very closely at the areas where the drop shadow should be, and tell us what you see. And is there any way to actually show us the image?
What exactly do you mean when you say that the bottom layer is “obscuring” the drop shadow?
Try saving for web and uploading the piccy to www.imageshack.us or another webhost.
You might also double click on the effects layer, position it so that both it and the layers panel are visible, press “Print Screen,” open a new .psd and paste into it, and save that for web and host it so we can have a peek. (Or maybe just e-mail one of us your work-file or a reduced-size version of it.)
It sounds to me like the blend mode may be set to something wacky.
Surely it’s not just that the shadow doesn’t contrast very much with the layer underneath.
sounds like a blending mode or transparency issue, or possibly you accidently checked an additional layer effect besides just shadow that’s causing an issue. maybe you can upload it somewhere for us to look at. if you’d like to email me i’d be willing to take a look at it.
I suspect it’s because your shadow color is lighter than your background, and your Blend Mode is set to the default, “Multiply.” When your shadow is lighter, you should set the Blend Mode to “Normal.”
Hi guys,
Thanks for all your suggestions. I managed to solve the problem by following Gentle Robot’s and lissener’s suggestion of changing the shadow’s blend mode from Multiply to Normal. I’m not entirely sure why this worked, but suffice to say it did and now I can see my drop shadow effect perfectly. Incidentally, here’s the picture I was working on.
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/9779/frontcovercopygt8.jpg
The drop shadow effect around ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ is what was originally obscured.
Thanks again guys.