How To Create Reflections In Photoshop

I am now going to show you how to make a reflection in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Right, let's take it away. Here is one that I made earlier. So, you can use the reflection on images. I've just decided to use it on text because it is a bit simpler way to show you guys how to do it. I'm going to start off with a brand new fresh canvas, so quick shortcut on how to do that, Apple-N or Ctrl-N if you're on a PC. This will give you the new canvas settings. So, just for argument's sake, I am going to use an A4 size canvas. Set the resolution to 300 DPI; that's a generally good setting for print-based work. If you were going to print this out, just hit okay there. You have an A4-sized sheet of paper, say, there. So, I am going to rotate the image. If you click Image, Image Rotation, 90 degrees clockwise, and there we go, we have the whole image landscape. So, to get that black background, I will use the fill tool, or paint bucket tool, which, the shortcut, for all the shortcut nerds, is G. So, I will select the color I want to use in the color palette down here. If you double-click on the palettes there, you will get the color picker. So, you can choose any color you want, green, blue, pink, but I will use black color here. It will make things easier. Click okay. So I have my background layer selected here. For this case, you don't need to worry about it. We're just going to make the background black. You can change if you feel you need to. So, you click in the space, and now, we have a nice black background there. So, now, we're going to zoom in, just to make things easier, which the shortcut is Apple+ or Control+, if you're using a PC. So, to create the text, as I used the Videojug earlier, I'm going to recreate that again. So, if you go to the tall palette here, you'll see there is a tall T - that is the text tool. Shortcut, again, for that, is T on the keyboard. So, I am going to just click anywhere in the space and as you can see, it brings up the text tool. So, I am just going to type in “Video Jug”. Now, in the top here, we can change the settings of the text. I'm going to go with a slightly easier font to work with. So if you just click on the drop menu here, it will bring up all the fonts they have stored. I am going to use a simple Calibri font. So, we can now go through and change, using this drop down menu there, we'll add italics. If you just want it to be a regular shape, what have you. At the right, you can change the size; this is obviously way too big for our canvas. We're just going to click in here, highlight the text and we'll type in whatever size we want in here. Of course, this will vary for however you want to use it. We'll just use 150, that's fine for now. It just makes things easier. Now, here we have our text and we'll change it because it looks a little bad. So, we're going to change the color. So if you want to change the color of the text, with your text layer selected, click back on the text. Now, you've reselected the text again. So, I'm going to highlight it, just by clicking and dragging on the text, and on this menu here, if you double-click on the little block of color, you bring up the color picker we were using earlier. Again, you can drag it around and make any color. We'll use white because it'll be easiest to demonstrate with. Now, to deselect out of the text tool, I find it is easiest to bring the mouse over to select the top, which is the move tool, again, which is V, for you, shortcut nerds out there. There we go. Now, we have VideoJug in all its glory. Now, moving on to the reflection, it is a pretty simple process. If you come back over to your layers here, and you right click on the layer and you get all these lovely new options. I will select duplicate Layer. And I will name the layer, just because it makes it easier, just in case later you are using lots of layers, it will make it easier to find. So, VideoJug text reflection, hit okay. Now, I'll have two layers saying the same thing, which is exactly what you want. So, in order to make the reflection, I am going to use the shortcut, Apple-T, which allows you to transform the layer's shape and size. So, using the handles as we have around here, you can stretch, you can shrink, you can do a whole manner of actions there. So, what I am going to do is Apple-T, going to use the top handle here, and I'm going to click and hold and drag it down, down below the first layer. So, now, once you get it here, you can adjust it as you see fit. I mean, there's no real rule about that. So, I'm just going to put it to about there and hit enter which will finalize the image. So, now, you will have two layers which say VideoJug or whatever text you're using, or whatever image you're using, one facing up and one facing down. Okay, now, in order to be able to add the reflection effect on this layer, we need to rasterize the image. So, this flattens it and takes it as the image it is. Now, to do this, there are a couple of ways: one quick way is to click on image you want to use, to rasterize or flatten, and you can select Rasterize Type. Now, I won't be able to go back and change the text because it has flattened the image so make sure you have it like you want it when you get to this stage. Okay, now what we're going to do is add a quick mask layer. Now, to do this, come over to your layers palette over on your right-hand side. There's a small icon which is a square with a circle inside it. So, I am going to click that, which will add the layer mask. So, what it will do is add this little box which is exactly what we want there. Now, to make the reflection grade, we're going to use the gradient tool. Now, the gradient tool is found underneath generally where the paint bucket is. So if you click and hold, you will get the different options we want to select. Another shortcut way, which is the one I prefer to use, is to hold shift and G. To select the different options this tool has to offer. So, click and hold, gradient tool. Now, making sure you have this white box here selected, we're going to come up top to where we have the settings. So, we're going to double-click on the nice little fader we have there and I'm going to select the white to nothing to opaque setting. As you can see here, you have white here, then you have square boxes over here which suggest you have nothing behind it. Just hit okay. So, what we're going to do here is click and drag over the image to create the desired reflection. Now, this might take a few goes. I know it took me a couple of goes when I was trying this last night when I was trying to do it. Now, we're going to click and drag over the image to create the grade. Now, this might take you a few goes, so if you click Apple-Z, it can jump you back a turn and set it back how it was. So, it's just a case of doing it and testing it. So, you might think that looks alright, you might think it doesn't. Again, clicking and dragging and dragging it up over the image. Now, if you want a straight line, you can hold shift, which will snap the line into a straight line for the grade. Holding shift, you can snap it to that line, so you can keep it and drag it over like that. So, now, you have the reflection text there. Now, to do the little effect that I've done there by keeping it at a slightly cool and weird layer, you have to rasterize the text that we have here. Again, to do this, I'll show you a new way. So, go to Layer, Rasterize, Type, this will flatten the image. Now, to make that slight perspective change, if you highlight both your layers by using Apple, or Control, if you're using a PC, and click on the layer above, now both layers are highlighted blue, so select Apple-T which will give you transform options. So, you can now go through and right-click on a handle and change the option to distort and now, you can take one of the handles and change it to whatever crazy angle you see fit. So I am just going to make it, with a little bit of an odd perspective there. So, if you want to keep it as straight as possible, hit shift and it will snap it to the edge; snap it as a straight line. So I'll just drag this one down like that, maybe adjust this one here, so I'm just holding shift and using the handles to adjust the shape. Just going to reduce this one slightly. So, there you all have the image in the kind of perspective you want. Now, to set that, just hit enter and there you have your reflection with kind of crazy cool angle.