5. Lighten the shadow with the Curve tool

6. If there were an object on the ground to the left of the tree where the shadow falls, the shadow would shape or mold itself around and over that object. For right now, we’ll assume that it is landing flat on the ground.

Shadows tend to get blurry the longer they extend out and their intensity starts to fall off, so once the shadow has been distorted to the correct position, I usually go into mask mode and create a fall-off mask. Then I can perform a tonal correction to the end of the tree shadow, typically lightening the shadow as is it falls off.

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Note: Keep in mind as well that, as a shadow gets closer to an object, it gets sharper with less vignetting occurring. The vignetted mask allows you to make these adjustments.
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Typically, as shadows extend out father from their original object, they get less sharp and tend to get blurry. You can also use the same vignette mask that you used to lighten the tree shadow fall-off to add a Gaussian blur to the shadow, as shown below. By using the vignetted mask, it makes it easy to blur the shadow as it falls off from the tree, because the vignetted mask has been created to allow for more correction as it falls off.

7. Finally, our tree is ready for its mountainside transplanting. But remember, when a shadow hits an irregular shape, the shape of the shadow will change, too. So when the shadow hits the mountainside, you may have to adjust.

You can alter your shadow by drawing the new shape with the Pen tool, and then filling it with color on a multiplied layer. You may have to soften it slightly to enhance the realism of it. Or, I occasionally use the Liquify tool if the object the shadow is hitting is an odd shape that has to be massaged into an equally odd shape.